to hang a Louie

1 9.9

Turn left while driving or riding a bike

idiom
/hæŋ ə ˈluːi/

Informal

: girar a la izquierda

To avoid traffic, make sure to hang a Louie at the next intersection.

Examples

If you want to visit the park, just hang a Louie at the next corner.
- I said hang a Louie.

Show Dogs (2018)
- Hang a Louie!

Show Dogs (2018)
When you reach the lights, hang a Louie to find the best route.

Synonyms

to make a left turn

vsto hang a Louie

4 1.8

Turn a car or other vehicle left at an intersection

uses informal North American speech instead of neutral phrasing

Antonyms

to go straight down

10 2.2

Move forward without turning along a street, hall, or stairs

How Sharp

to swerve

61 2.8

to veer

63 4.2

to hang a Louie

Informal

1 9.9

Surface Forms

hang a Louie infinitive

hanging a Louie present participle

hangs a Louie third person singular

hung a Louie past

hung a Louie past participle

Morphology

hang + a + Louie

The meaning 'to make a left turn' cannot be derived from the literal constituents: 'hang' (which does not inherently mean 'turn'), the article 'a', and the proper name 'Louie', which has no transparent relation to direction. This is a regional slang variant of the idiom 'hang a left' and is therefore unpredictable to a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words, making it opaque.

Etymology

Hang a Louie probably comes from the older road phrase hang a left. One popular story says people started saying the letter L for 'left' as the name 'Louie', so 'hang an L' became 'hang a Louie'. So today hang a Louie means 'to turn left', especially when driving or cycling.