Meets with friends to put up short pole (5,3)

I believe the answer is:

hangs out

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'meets with friends' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot tell whether it can be defined by this definition.

'put up short pole' is the wordplay.
'put up' becomes 'hang' (as in hanging a picture).
'short' means to remove the last letter.
'pole' becomes 'South Pole' (South Pole is an example).
'south' with its final letter taken away is 'sout'.
'hang'+'sout'='HANGS OUT'

'to' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for hangs out that I've seen before include "displays" , "Spends enjoyable time" .)

I've seen this clue in The Irish Times.

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