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shag

 - 12 dictionary results

shag

1[shag] noun, verb, shagged, shag⋅ging.
–noun
1. rough, matted hair, wool, or the like.
2. a mass of this.
3. a hairdo in which hair is cut in slightly uneven, overlapping layers downward from the crown, sometimes with the hair at the front and back hairlines left longer or wispier than the rest.
4. a cloth with a nap, as of silk or a heavy or rough woolen fabric.
5. a rug or carpet with a thick, shaggy pile.
6. a coarse tobacco cut into fine shreds.
–verb (used with object), verb (used without object)
7. to make or become rough or shaggy.

Origin:
bef. 1050; OE sceacga (wooly) hair (not recorded in ME); c. ON skegg beard; akin to shaw


shaglike, adjective

shag

2[shag]
–noun
1. a small cormorant, Phalacrocorax aristotelis, of European coasts.
2. any of several small cormorants of the Southern Hemisphere.

Origin:
1560–70; perh. special use of shag 1 , applied first to bird's crest

shag

3[shag] verb, shagged, shag⋅ging, noun
–verb (used without object)
1. to dance a step with a vigorous hopping on each foot.
–noun
2. this dance step.

Origin:
1350–1400; perh. var. of shog

shag

4[shag]
–verb (used with object), shagged, shag⋅ging.
1. to chase or follow after; pursue.
2. to go after and bring back; fetch.
3. Baseball. to retrieve and throw back (fly balls) in batting practice.
4. shag ass, Slang: Vulgar. to depart, esp. hurriedly; get going.

Origin:
1930–35; orig. uncert.; see shack 2
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To shag
shag 1   (shāg)   
n.  
  1. A tangle or mass, especially of rough matted hair.

    1. A coarse long nap, as on a woolen cloth.

    2. Cloth having such a nap.

  2. A rug with a thick rough pile.

  3. Coarse shredded tobacco.

tr.v.   shagged, shag·ging, shags
To make shaggy; roughen.

[Middle English *shagge, from Old English sceacga, matted hair.]
shag 2   (shāg)   
n.  A dance step of the 1930s consisting of a hop on each foot in turn.
intr.v.   shagged, shag·ging, shags
To perform or execute this dance.

[Origin unknown.]
shag 3   (shāg)   
n.  Either of two marine birds (Phalacrocorax aristotelis or P. punctatus) of Europe and North Africa, related to the cormorant.

[Perhaps from its shaggy crest.]
shag 4   (shāg)   
tr.v.   shagged, shag·ging, shags
  1. To chase and bring back; fetch.

  2. Baseball To chase and catch (fly balls) in practice.


[Perhaps from obsolete shag, to shake.]
shag 5   (shāg)   
v.   shagged, shag·ging, shags Chiefly British Vulgar Slang

v.   tr.
To engage in sexual intercourse with.
v.   intr.
To engage in sexual intercourse.

[Perhaps from obsolete shag, to shake, wiggle.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary
shag (off)

  1. in.
    to depart. : I gotta shag. It's late.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Word Origin & History

shag  (n.)
1592, "cloth having a velvet nap on one side," from O.E. sceacga "rough matted hair or wool," cognate with O.N. skegg "beard," from P.Gmc. *skagjan, perhaps related to O.H.G. scahho "promontory," with a connecting sense of "jutting out, projecting." Of tobacco, "cut in fine shreds," it is recorded from 1789; of carpets, rugs, etc., from 1946. Shagbark as a type of hickory is from 1751. Shaggy is attested from c.1590 (earlier shagged, O.E.); shaggy-dog story first recorded 1945.

shag  (v.)
"copulate with," 1788, probably from obs. verb shag (c.1380) "to shake, waggle," which probably is connected to shake (cf. shake, shake it in U.S. blues slang from 1920s, ostensibly with ref. to dancing).
"And þe boot, amydde þe water, was shaggid." [Wyclif]
Also the name of a dance popular in U.S. 1930s and '40s. The baseball verb meaning "to catch" (fly balls) is attested from 1913, of uncertain origin or connection to other senses of the word.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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