nag
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈnæɡ/
ipa: /neɪɡ/
ipa: /nɛɡ/
rhymes: -æɡ
homophone: Knagg
Forms: form: nags
form: nagging
form: nagged
form: nagged
Etymology: Probably from a North Germanic source; compare Swedish nagga (“to gnaw, grumble”), Danish nage (“to nag, bother”), Icelandic nagga (“to complain”).
Compare typologically fret, Bulgarian глождя (gloždja), Russian глода́ть (glodátʹ), грызть (gryztʹ), по́едом есть (pójedom jestʹ), е́дкий (jédkij).
Senses: examples: text: The room is never cleaned, so her mother nags and nags until she explodes with frustration and threatens to sell her to the lowest bidder.
ref: 2006, Jerry Day, How to Raise Kids You Want to Keep, →ISBN:
text: Anyone would think that I nagged at you, Amanda! (From Amanda! by Robin Klein)
glosses: To repeatedly remind or complain to (someone) in an annoying way, often about insignificant or unnecessary matters.
examples: text: The notion that he forgot something nagged him the rest of the day.
text: I guess it happens all the time in crime stories where the detective suddenly remembers a bit of conversation that nags him in some way, then for some inexplicable reason, it's just right there in front of you, like a sign pointing 'here!
ref: 2010, John David Wells, Diamonds of Affection and Other Stories, →ISBN, page 100:
text: Sometimes I write because there is a question that nags at me, sometimes because there is a question that nags at other people.
ref: 2010, John Goldingay, Key Questions about Christian Faith: Old Testament Answers, →ISBN:
text: You are sleeping on your side in the bed in your flat, heavily embroiled in a dream which sucks and nags at you and makes no sense; an old primary school teacher is there and a cat you have to take to a supermarket; you are in a canoe.
ref: 2013, Ra Page, L.E. Yates, Ann Winter, Parenthesis: A New Generation in Short Fiction:
glosses: To bother with persistent thoughts or memories.
examples: text: But at night, around the uncertain edge of dreams, and when the wind nags, there are few whom an odd sound will not thrill
ref: 1999, Tim Parks, Adultery and Other Diversions, →ISBN:
text: When a breeze comes up and nags the surface, it sparkles like a gemstone.
ref: 2013, Tina Egnoski, Perishables, →ISBN:
text: We are well accustomed as we look out upon Nature at close range to see great creatures harrassed^([sic]) by little creatures. The lot of each big one seems to be in the keeping of some little one, which never quits it, nags it, stings it, wears it out, drives it desperate, makes life somewhat a burden to it and death somewhat a relief.
ref: 2014, James Lane Allen, The Last Christmas Tree: An Idyl of Immortality, →ISBN, page 8:
text: a nagging pain in his left knee
text: a nagging north wind
glosses: To bother or disturb persistently in any way.
Synonyms: sense: continually remind or complain
word: ride
sense: continually remind or complain
word: sit on
sense: bother with thoughts or memories
word: haunt
sense: persistently bother or annoy
word: worry
Derived terms: nagavator
naggable
naggee
nagger
naggingly
naggingness
naggish
naggy
nag screen
nagsome
nagster
nagware
unnagged
unnagging
Related terms: gnaw