shag
/ˈʃæɡ/ noun, verb, adjective
Forms shags shagging shagged shack
- noun Matted material; rough massed hair, fibres etc.
- noun Coarse shredded tobacco.
- noun A type of rough carpet pile.
- noun (UK, Ireland, archaic) Bacon or fat, especially if with some remaining hair or bristles.
- noun (UK, Ireland, archaic) A roughly-cut or torn-off piece of bread or cheese.
- noun (often attributive) A deliberately messy, shaggy hairstyle.
- verb (transitive) To make hairy or shaggy; to roughen.
- verb (intransitive, obsolete) To hang in shaggy clusters.
- adjective (obsolete) Hairy; shaggy.
- noun Any of several species of sea birds in the family Phalacrocoracidae (cormorant family), especially a common shag or European shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis), found on European and African coasts.
- verb (intransitive) To shake, wiggle around.
- verb (UK, Ireland, Australia, transitive, slang, vulgar) To have sex with.
- verb (UK, Ireland, Australia, intransitive, slang, vulgar) To have sex.
- verb (India, transitive, slang, vulgar) To masturbate.
- verb To chase after; especially, to chase after and return (a ball) hit usually out of play.
- verb (dance, uncommon) To perform the dance called the shag.
- noun (dance, sometimes capitalized) A swing dance.
- noun (slang, vulgar) An act of sex.
- noun (slang, vulgar) A casual sexual partner.
- noun (Northwestern Ontario) A fundraising dance in honour of a couple engaged to be married.
Synonyms
shaggy cut jiggle rock tremble quake shake vibrate wiggle Formal terms bed coit coitize dight enjoy feague go in unto go to bed with have know lie by fuck fucking screw screwing ass nooky nookie piece of ass piece of tail roll in the hay
Etymology
From Middle English *schagge, from Old English sċeacga (“hair, wool”), from Proto-Germanic *skaggô, *skaggiją (“projection, bristly hair, stem”), *skag- (“to emerge, stick out, protrude”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kek- (“to jump, move, hurry”).
Akin to Old Norse skegg (“beard”) (compare Danish skæg, Norwegian skjegg, Swedish skägg). Related to shake and shock via the root.
Unknown. Perhaps a derivative of Etymology 1, above, with reference to the shaggy crest of the European shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis).
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-West Germanic *skakkōn (“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.
Blend of shower (“bridal shower”) + stag (“bachelor party”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun Coarse hair or nap; rough, woolly hair.
- noun A kind of cloth having a long, coarse nap.
- adjective Hairy; shaggy. Shak.
- verb To make hairy or shaggy; hence, to make rough.
Etymology [AS. sceacga a bush of hair; akin to Icel. skegg the beard, Sw. skägg, Dan. skj. Cf. Schock of hair.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “shag”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details