means to fasten or tie something temporarily, to move with a jerk, or — as a noun — a snag or sudden brief problem in a smooth process.

from A word of murky beginnings, recorded in Middle English as hicchen, meaning to move with a jerk or shift suddenly. Its deeper roots are genuinely uncertain — no clean ancestor survives — but the sense ran from that jerking motion to the idea of catching or fastening something with a quick tug, and then to a snag that catches you up. The traveler's hitchhike is a much later American extension, from the jerk of a thumb thrown out to a passing car.