ahorcar

A common, weighty verb meaning to hang someone (as an execution or lynching) or to strangle — ahorcar a un reo, ahorcarse (to hang oneself). Blunt and serious, not used loosely the way English "hang" sometimes is for casual waiting (that's colgar or quedarse for "hang around").

• En la Edad Media ahorcaban a los ladrones. — In the Middle Ages they hanged thieves.
• El personaje se ahorca al final de la novela. — The character hangs himself at the end of the novel.
• Casi lo ahorca con sus propias manos de la rabia. — He nearly strangled him with his bare hands out of rage.

Using ahorcar for the casual English sense of "hang out" or "hang on" — those need quedar, colgar el teléfono, or esperar; ahorcar always means the serious, violent act of hanging or strangling, never idle waiting.

• expression El juego del ahorcado — The standard Spanish name for the classic word-guessing game known in English as Hangman, built on ahorcado, the past participle of ahorcar — documented on Spanish Wikipedia and used across Spanish-speaking countries.