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dangling

Other forms: danglings

Describing something as dangling means it's hanging down loosely, like the dangling silver charms on your grandmother's bracelet.

Dangling things are suspended or swinging freely, from your dangling legs that hang over the side of the dock with your toes just touching the water, to your cocker spaniel's silky, dangling ears. In grammar, a dangling modifier is a word or phrase that doesn't modify the word it's meant to; because the sentence is composed incorrectly, the modifier is left "dangling" awkwardly. In this sentence, the word "horrified" is dangling: "Horrified, the pop vocabulary quiz was apparently today."

Definitions of dangling
  1. noun
    the act of suspending something (hanging it from above so it moves freely)
    synonyms: hanging, suspension
    see moresee less
    type of:
    support, supporting
    the act of bearing the weight of or strengthening
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