Definition of "bear hug" []

• A rough, tight hug. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Gorn's agonized cry was cut short as a powerful bear hug snapped his spine."
• "The bear hug is a crude hold and easily broken by anyone not inhibited by a devotion to fair play, and when attacked without warning from behind, the Saint considered himself absolved from the code of gentlemanly conduct."
• "If SLOSS was trench warfare, this paper seemed the equivalent of Lloyd George in a bear hug with Kaiser Wilhelm."