wag
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: ball-games
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
Etymology: From Middle English waggen, probably from Old English wagian (“to wag, wave, shake”) with reinforcement from Old Norse vaga (“to wag, waddle”); both from Proto-Germanic *wagōną (“to wag”). Related to English way.
The verb may be regarded as an iterative or emphatic form of waw (verb), which is often nearly synonymous; it was used, e.g., of a loose tooth. Parallel formations from the same root are the Old Norse vagga feminine, cradle (Swedish vagga, Danish vugge), Swedish vagga (“to rock a cradle”), vugge (“to rock a cradle”), Dutch wagen (“to move”), early modern German waggen (dialectal German wacken) to waver, totter. Compare waggle, verb
Inflected forms:
form: wags
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: wagging
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: wagged
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: wagged
pos: verb
tags: past
form: wags
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To swing from side to side, as an animal's tail, or someone's head to express disagreement or disbelief.
pos: verb
tags: ambitransitive
examples: No discerner durst wag his tongue in censure.
Every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.
Carrados wagged his head in good-humoured resignation.
gloss: To play truant from school.
pos: verb
tags: Australia
New-Zealand
UK
slang
examples: "My misfortunes all began in wagging, Sir; but what could I do, exceptin' wag?" "Excepting what?" said Mr. Carker. "Wag, Sir. Wagging from school." "Do you mean pretending to go there, and not going?" said Mr. Carker. "Yes, Sir, that's wagging, Sir."
They had "wagged it" from school, as they termed it, which..meant truancy in all its forms.
[…] she wagged English and Science just to go in his car […]
gloss: To go; to proceed; to move; to progress.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
obsolete
examples: "Thus we may see," quoth he, "how the world wags."
gloss: To move continually, especially in gossip; said of the tongue.
pos: verb
examples: She's a real gossip: her tongue is always wagging.
gloss: To leave; to depart.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
obsolete
examples: I will provoke him to 't, or let him wag.
gloss: Of the tail (lower order of the batting lineup): to score more runs than expected.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
slang
examples: The tail wagged.
gloss: An oscillating movement.
pos: noun
examples: The wag of my dog's tail expresses happiness.
gloss: A witty person.
pos: noun
examples: Was not my Lord
The veryer Wag o'th' two?
But being a bit of a wag, and relishing a good joke amazingly, he concluded to have a little fun, and at the same time learn his friend a lesson concerning his negligent custom.
“A nice, juicy steak,” he is said to have called for, “French fries, apple pie and a cup of coffee.” It is probable that he really said “a coff of cuppee,” however, as he was a wag of the first water and loved a joke as well as the next king.
By Wednesday it had already won art-world notoriety, and on Saturday it achieved a public visibility that any artist would envy, after a self-promoting wag tore the banana off the wall and gobbled it up.
Many people can't work from home - as one wag observed: "Well, I would, but the wife doesn't like me laying tarmac in the front room!"
Related words: waggle
wiggle
skivitis
wag one
Derived words: awag
chinwag
finger-wag
tail wagging the dog
wag a finger
wag-at-the-wall
wag hemp
wag it
wag-on-the-wall
wag-tail dance
wag the dog
wag-wanton
hop the wag
play the wag
wag-halter
waggy
waggish
Translations: