E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Hang Out.
Where do you hand out? Where are you living, or lodging? The allusion is to the custom, now restricted to public-houses, but once very general, of hanging before one’s shop a sign indicating the nature of the business carried on within. Druggists often still place coloured bottles in their windows, and some tobacconists place near their shop door the statue of a Scotchman. (See Dickens: Pickwick Papers, chap. xxx.)
