hug
n. countablen. the act of putting your arms around someone to show you like them or to say hello. It is a warm way to show someone you care.
n. an act of holding someone tightly with one's arms, typically to express affection, greeting, or consolation.
She gave her friend a big hug before leaving.
After being apart for three years, the siblings shared a long hug at the airport arrivals gate.
The child sought the comfort of a warm hug to soothe the anxiety brought on by the loud thunderstorm outside.
From earlier hugge (“to embrace, clasp with the arms”) (1560), probably representing a conflation of huck (“to crouch, huddle down”) and Old Norse hugga (“to comfort, console”), from hugr (“mind, heart, thought”), from Proto-Germanic *hugiz (“mind, thought, sense”), cognate with Icelandic hugga (“to comfort”), Old English hyġe (“thought”) (whence high (Etymology 2)).