Word: blag Part of Speech: verb 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. Pronunciation: /blæɡ/, /blaɡ/, /blæːɡ/, /blɛɡ/, /bleɪ̯ɡ/ 1. To obtain (something) for free, particularly by guile or persuasion. Labels: Ireland, UK, informal, transitive Example: Can I blag a fag? Example: He’s blagged his way into many a party. 2. To obtain (something) for free, particularly by guile or persuasion. Labels: Ireland, UK, informal, specifically, transitive Example: The newspaper is accused of blagging details of the prime minister’s flat purchase from his solicitors. Example: 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. 3. To obtain (something desired), or avoid (something undesired), through improvisation or luck; to fluke, to get away with. Labels: Ireland, UK, informal, transitive Example: ‘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.’ Example: 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. 4. To use guile or persuasion on (someone); also, to deceive or perpetrate a hoax on (someone). Labels: Ireland, UK, informal, transitive Example: 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.' 5. To meet and seduce (someone) for romantic purposes, especially in a social situation; to pick up. Labels: Ireland, Polari, UK, informal, transitive Example: 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. 6. To speak persuasively or with guile to obtain something. Labels: Ireland, UK, informal, intransitive Example: 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; […]