shag
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ʃæɡ/
rhymes: -æɡ
Forms: form: shags
form: shagging
form: shagged
form: shagged
Etymology: From Middle English schaggen, a variant of Middle English schoggen (“to shake; shake off; tremble”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps a byform of Middle English schokken (“to shake; move rapidly”), related to Middle Low German schokken (“to shake; tremble”). Alternatively, perhaps ultimately from Proto-Germanic *skakkōną (“to shake”), specifically continuing a post-Proto-Germanic variant *skagg-, where the non-singular stem *skag- caused the analogical replacement of the stem-final voiceless geminate consonants with voiced geminates, which was then leveled throughout the paradigm.
Senses: synonyms: word: jiggle
word: rock
word: tremble
word: jiggle
word: quake
word: shag
word: shake
word: tremble
word: vibrate
word: wiggle
glosses: To shake, wiggle around.
examples: text: Every time since has been a disaster. Our sex life always has been. After k.b.ing me for ages, she’d eventually let me shag her.
ref: 1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, “The Glass”, in Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 76:
text: ‘You never got so much as a bit of tit in three months, and I shagged her first week!’
ref: 1995, Nick Hornby, High Fidelity, London: Victor Gollancz, →ISBN, page 18:
text: I can kick this stuff any time I like. I tell you what. Get this week over, we'll go to a health farm for ten days. No drugs. No drink. And shag ourselves silly. How about that?
ref: 1990, Michael Dobbs, Andrew Davies, House of Cards, season 1, episode 2:
text: “Ha! Shagging a chair is quite odd.” “Its legs were very sexy. And I know how you are, so I expected a challenge. What did you turn into anyway?” “Oh, the dowdiest mortal woman. You should have seen it.” “Oh, I would have been all over that.” “I know!”
ref: 2025 May 11, Monica Padrick, “Don Tyxote” (15:59 from the start), in Krapopolis, season 2, episode 21, spoken by Deliria (Hannah Waddingham):
synonyms: word: Formal terms
word: bed
word: coit
word: coitize
word: dight
word: enjoy
word: feague
word: go in unto
word: go to bed with
word: have
word: know
word: lie by
word: lie with
word: love
word: mount
word: occupy
word: penetrate
word: season
word: seduce
word: sleep with
word: take
word: Any of Thesaurus:copulate + "with"
word: Informal and slang terms
word: ball
word: bang
word: bauf
word: beep
word: be with
word: bone
word: boff
word: boink
word: bonk
word: boom-boom
word: dick
word: diddle
word: dig out
word: do
word: doink
word: drill
word: eff
word: expletive deleted
word: feck
word: fill
word: frack
word: frak
word: frick
word: frig
word: fuck
word: get into someone's pants
word: get over on
word: get up in
word: give someone one
word: give someone the time
word: go with
word: have one's way with
word: have one's wicked way with
word: hit
word: hump
word: jape
word: jump
word: jump someone's bones
word: knob
word: knock
word: knock off
word: know someone in the biblical sense
word: lay
word: love up
word: make
word: nail
word: plough
word: plug
word: poke
word: pork
word: pound
word: prig
word: pump
word: ream
word: rock
word: roger
word: root
word: run through
word: rut
word: sard
word: schlong
word: screw
word: see to
word: service
word: shaft
word: shag
word: shelve
word: slay
word: slip it to
word: smash
word: smush
word: stallionize
word: swive
word: tap
word: tup
word: wap
glosses: To have sex with.
examples: text: I'm not pregnant! I have shagged and shagged and shagged and all the little bastards missed!
ref: 2002, Steven Moffat, Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps (Coupling), season 3, episode 7, spoken by Jane Christie (Gina Bellman):
synonyms: word: approach
word: cohabit
word: company
word: copulate
word: couple
word: engage in sex
word: exchange flesh
word: have intimate relations
word: have marital relations
word: have sex
word: have sexual relations
word: intercourse
word: know
word: know someone in the biblical sense
word: make love
word: mate
word: share a bed
word: sleep together
word: strain
word: bang
word: bauf
word: beat
word: bone
word: boff
word: boink
word: bonk
word: bop
word: bounce
word: breed
word: bump nasties
word: bump uglies
word: catch a dick
word: dance
word: discuss Uganda
word: dip one's pen in someone's inkwell
word: do it
word: do the deed
word: do the nasty
word: eff
word: engender
word: expletive deleted
word: feck
word: frack
word: frak
word: frick
word: frig
word: fuck
word: get busy
word: get down
word: get freaky
word: get it
word: get it on
word: get jiggy
word: get laid
word: get lucky
word: get one's dick wet
word: get one's end away
word: get one's freak on
word: get one's groove on
word: get one's leg over
word: get one's oats
word: get physical
word: get some
word: get the dirty water off one's chest
word: graft the forked tree
word: go all the way
word: haul one's ashes
word: have it away
word: have it off
word: hide the salami
word: hide the sausage
word: hide the wienie
word: hike the Appalachian Trail
word: hook up
word: hump
word: jig-jig
word: knock boots
word: lay pipe
word: lay the pipe
word: make it
word: make out
word: make the beast with two backs
word: make whoopee
word: meddle
word: ming
word: Netflix and chill
word: penetrate
word: pipe
word: pipe down
word: play
word: play hide the sausage
word: pound
word: rail
word: ride
word: rock and roll
word: roger
word: roll around
word: root
word: screw
word: see someone's etchings
word: sex
word: shag
word: shelve
word: show someone one's etchings
word: slap bellies
word: stick
word: tumble
glosses: To have sex.
synonyms: word: bash one out
word: bate
word: beat it
word: beat off
word: crank one out
word: fap
word: frig
word: jack off
word: jack it
word: jerk it
word: jerk off
word: jork it
word: knock one out
word: masturbate
word: mastuprate
word: play pocket pool
word: play with oneself
word: pleasure oneself
word: rub one out
word: self-abuse
word: self-pollute
word: service oneself
word: skeet
word: toss
word: toss off
word: touch oneself
word: wank
word: wank off
word: whack off
glosses: To masturbate.
examples: text: Chris is off somewhere in the darkness, but I'm not going to shag after him.
ref: 1974, Robert M[aynard] Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow & Company, →ISBN:
text: When a White Sox scout spotted him shagging flies on a Milwaikee^([sic]) sandlot, and asked Felsch if he'd like to come to Chicago, Hap decided that that might be fun, too.
ref: 1997, Nelson Algren, The Last Carousel, page 273:
glosses: To chase after; especially, to chase after and return (a ball) hit usually out of play.
examples: text: Showman Monte Proser tried to cash in on the boom on a mass basis with his Dance Carnival in Madison Square Garden, where dancers lindy hopped, shagged and fox-trotted to the orchestras of Benny Goodman, Larry Clinton and Charlie Barnett[…]
ref: 1970, Richard R. Lingeman, Don't You Know There's a War On? […] , Putnam, →ISBN, page 16:
topics: dance
dancing
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To perform the dance called the shag.