What it means
To hang around is to stay somewhere with no real agenda, just passing time, waiting on someone, or kicking about with other people. You can hang around outside the shop, hang around till your mate gets there, or hang around with friends. It's casual, loose, and sometimes a bit pointless, but that's exactly the vibe.
Usage examples
"They hang around outside the chippy every Friday night."
"The teenagers of the local secondary school of the Cotswold village hang around the corner shop of the high street every afternoon of the term, the owner has put up a polite notice on the window asking the regulars to either purchase or move on, and the parish council has discussed the matter at the last three monthly meetings of the year."
"Stop hanging around the kitchen, dinner will not be ready any faster."
"I will hang around the bookshop of the Charing Cross Road in London for an hour while the cousin finishes the meeting at the design studio of the second floor of the building, the manager of the rare books section has just stocked the new collection of poetry of the Faber catalogue of the autumn release."
"We just hung around the car park after the match, chatting rubbish till it got dark."
Where it comes from
This phrasal verb has been around in English since at least the 19th century. Hang already meant to stay or remain in a place, and around adds that drifting, unfixed feel. Over time, hang around settled into everyday speech for loitering, waiting about, or just spending time with people.
