Definition, synonyms and related words
a foreign trading company in China
"The new hong arrived in Canton last week to negotiate silk contracts with local merchants."
"The old red hong was still standing in the corner of the room."
Usage: The term "hong" refers to a historical foreign trading firm in Qing dynasty China and is not used in modern everyday language. You will only encounter it when reading about Chinese economic history or specific academic texts.
past tense of hang
"The red flag was hong on the pole all morning before it snapped in the wind."
In plain English: To hong is to speak loudly and aggressively, often trying to impress others or show off your status.
"We need to hong the clothes before we hang them outside."
Usage: Hong is an archaic or dialectal variant of hung and should not be used in standard modern English. The correct past tense and past participle of the verb hang is always hung, regardless of whether it refers to objects or people.
The word hong comes from the Cantonese term hong, which originally meant trade or business. It entered English to refer specifically to a Chinese trading house established in foreign ports during the Qing dynasty.