blag
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /blæɡ/
rhymes: -æɡ
Forms: form: blags
form: blagging
form: blagged
form: blagged
Etymology: The origin of the verb is uncertain; it is possibly:
* from blag (“to rob; to steal”) (see etymology 1); or
* borrowed from French blaguer (“to joke (about); to tell a lie”), from blague (“pouch, especially for tobacco; joke (from the notion of something puffed up, and thus fanciful)”) (from Dutch balg (“leather bag”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵʰ- (“to swell”)) + -er (suffix forming infinitives of first-conjugation verbs).
The adjective and noun are probably derived from the verb.
Senses: examples: text: Can I blag a fag?
text: He’s blagged his way into many a party.
text: He was just off to the Tramway to see that Dutch dance company. He said we could probably blag free tickets, they're desperate to paper the house.
ref: 1998, Ajay Close, chapter 21, in Forspoken, London: Vintage Books, published 1999, →ISBN, page 258:
text: A couple of others [websites] are hosted by U-Net (www.vianetworks.co.uk), which provided free space because I'm an unprincipled journo and I blagged it.
ref: 2004 January, Huw Collingbourne, “Rants and Raves: The Host with the Most”, in PC Plus, number 211, Bath, Somerset: Future plc, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 241, column 1:
text: He later recalled that blagging a cab ride to Warrington Dallam shed on Stanier '8F' 48531 was a life-changing experience.
ref: 2023 January 25, Howard Johnston, “Peter Kelly: August 2 1944 – December 28 2022”, in Rail, number 975, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 46:
synonyms: word: inveigle
word: sponge
word: beg
word: blag
word: bum
word: cadge
word: leech
word: mooch
word: scrounge
word: sponge
word: tap
word: wheedle
glosses: To obtain (something) for free, particularly by guile or persuasion.
examples: text: The newspaper is accused of blagging details of the prime minister’s flat purchase from his solicitors.
text: I worked for a trace agency. The years became a blur. Your every day is spent ringing people to blag information out of them. You can do this in a nice way, but truth is, you choose the quickest.
ref: 2004, Anna Maxted, chapter 2, in Being Committed, New York, N.Y.: ReganBooks, →ISBN, page 13:
text: Matt Driscoll claimed that "blagging", or impersonating a third party, was used to secure the confidential information after receiving a tip that [Alex] Ferguson might be suffering from ill health. The former journalist added: "I was told sometimes you'd get a situation where if an investigator sent a fax to a GP or a hospital saying 'I'm his specialist, I need these details' it was incredible how often that would just get sent straight back."
ref: 2012, Alan Gillies, “Threats to the Security of Your Information”, in Data Protection for Slightly Bigger Companies, [Morrisville, N.C.]: Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 47:
text: [H]e also became a specialist in blagging British Telecom and mobile phone companies, from whom he extracted ex-directory numbers, lists of Friends and Family numbers, and rocs. He claimed that his thousands of victims included the Queen, Princess Diana and David Beckham.
ref: 2014, Nick Davies, “Crime in Fleet Street”, in Hack Attack: How the Truth Caught Up with Rupert Murdoch, London: Vintage Books, →ISBN, part 1 (Crime and Concealment), page 80:
synonyms: word: inveigle
word: sponge
word: beg
word: blag
word: bum
word: cadge
word: leech
word: mooch
word: scrounge
word: sponge
word: tap
word: wheedle
word: pretext
glosses: To obtain (something) for free, particularly by guile or persuasion.
To obtain (confidential information) by impersonation or other deception; also, to deceive (someone) into disclosing confidential information.
examples: text: ‘For the first six years I was a total chancer,’ he [Alan McGee] said. ‘I blagged it. All I did was keep choosing the right band and try not to fuck it up too much, which I usually did. […] [N]obody taught me to run a record company and I’ve made millions of mistakes.’
ref: 1996, Paul Mathur, “Creation and Faith”, in Take Me There: Oasis, the Story, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, published 1997, →ISBN, page 21:
text: Carly (played by Vinette Robinson): Now we’ve got just about enough lamb? / Freeman: No, we haven’t got enough lamb. / Carly: We’ve got eno— – we’ve got enough. / Andy Jones (played by Stephen Graham): All right. I’m sorry, lad. What’s your fucking problem? / Freeman: What’s my problem, Andy? It’s time and time a-fucking-gain. You’re not doing your job. / Carly: Freeman, Freeman. / Andy Jones: I can’t do them now, I didn’t do them last night, did I? I’m sorry, I apologise. I apologise. Have I said I’m sorry? Have I said I’m sorry? / Freeman: We’ve blagged it. It’s fine. We’ve got a menu for tonight.
ref: 2021 August 23, Philip Barantini, James Cummings, 12:18 from the start, in Philip Barantini, director, Boiling Point (film), spoken by Freeman (Ray Panthaki):
glosses: To obtain (something desired), or avoid (something undesired), through improvisation or luck; to fluke, to get away with.
examples: text: He asks me afterwards if I realize what a lot of 'blagging' (bull) there is in his job. I reply, 'You blagging him or him blagging you?' / 'Oh no, blagging him,' he says. 'When you give him a ticket or something, you have to be nice to them.'
ref: 1987, Roger Grimshaw, Tony Jefferson, “Patrol Report”, in Interpreting Policework: Policy and Practice in Forms of Beat Policing, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire: Allen & Unwin, →ISBN, part II (The Unit Beat System), page 58:
glosses: To use guile or persuasion on (someone); also, to deceive or perpetrate a hoax on (someone).
examples: text: Derek Jarman had also publicly identified himself as HIV-positive, while at the same time celebrating what the mainstream press saw and criticized as a promiscuous irresponsibility in blagging trade on Hampstead Heath, an infamous (and very popular) gay cruising ground in North London.
ref: 1997, Ian Lucas, “The Color of His Eyes: Polari and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence”, in Anna Livia, Kira Hall, editors, Queerly Phrased: Language, Gender, and Sexuality, New York, N.Y.; Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 89:
glosses: To meet and seduce (someone) for romantic purposes, especially in a social situation; to pick up.
examples: text: Some of my readers will undoubtedly call in question the veracity of what follows, and brand it with the title which is commonly called blagging still. This appellation cannot debilitate its sincerity; […]
ref: 1864, Jeremiah O’Donovan, A Brief Account of the Author’s Interview with His Countrymen, and of the Parts of the Emerald Isle whence They Emigrated. […], Pittsburgh, Pa.: Published by the author, →OCLC, page 44:
glosses: To speak persuasively or with guile to obtain something.
Derived terms: word: blagged
word: blagger
word: blagging