shanghai
verb (used with object)
to enroll or obtain (a sailor) for the crew of a ship by unscrupulous means, as by force or the use of liquor or drugs.
shanghai
1 American
[shang-hahy, shang-hahy]
/ ˈʃæŋ haɪ, ʃæŋˈhaɪ /
verb (used with object)
Nautical.
-
shanghais,
present (3rd person singular)
-
shanghaied,
past participle, past
-
shanghaiing
present participle
Shanghai
2
American
[shang-hahy, shahng-hahy]
/ ʃæŋˈhaɪ, ˈʃɑŋˈhaɪ /
noun
-
Pinyin, Wade-Giles. a seaport and municipality in E China, near the mouth of the Chang Jiang.
-
a type of long-legged chicken believed to be of Asian origin.
shanghai
1
British
/ ˈʃæŋhaɪ, ʃæŋˈhaɪ /
verb
-
to kidnap (a man or seaman) for enforced service at sea, esp on a merchant ship
-
to force or trick (someone) into doing something, going somewhere, etc
-
to shoot with a catapult
noun
Shanghai
2
British
/ ˈʃæŋˈhaɪ /
noun
Shanghai
Cultural
Discover More
Shanghai is the most populous city in Asia.
Opened to foreign trade by the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, Shanghai became a treaty port administered by Britain, the United States, and France until World War II.
It is one of the world's great seaports.
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
shanghaisimple
-
shanghaissimple
-
have shanghaiedperfect
-
has shanghaiedperfect
-
am shanghaiingprogressive
-
are shanghaiingprogressive
-
is shanghaiingprogressive
-
have been shanghaiingperfect progressive
-
has been shanghaiingperfect progressive
Past
-
shanghaiedsimple
-
had shanghaiedperfect
-
was shanghaiingprogressive
-
were shanghaiingprogressive
-
had been shanghaiingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of shanghai
First recorded in 1855–60; after Shanghai
Explanation
To shanghai someone is to kidnap or trick them into working for you. The traditional way to shanghai someone is to drug him and put him on a ship. When the person wakes up, he better get to work. This term popped up in the 19th century. The captain of a boat would shanghai people when his ship was short on labor. The shanghaied person would wake up and find himself at sea, often on a long trip like to Shanghai, China. The term is also used for similar, non-naval abductions. If you trick your best friend into coming home with you so she can do your chores, you shanghai her.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A schemer and her henchmen shanghai two book salesmen for a diamond safari in Africa.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 27, 2020
Glassy-eyed conductors shanghai hapless passengers from the curb into shuddering minibuses that zigzag through lines of cars, sometimes even jumping up on the sidewalk.
From New York Times ● Jul. 15, 2014
Job scouts from cabarets, electronic plants and weaving mills virtually shanghai girl caddies off the golf courses.
From Time Magazine Archive
He wanders into the waterfront dive run by Milly, a "shark" who helps shanghai drunken sailors into freighter crews.
From Time Magazine Archive
Brian had taken such a powerful dislike to Ginger that I realized she must have done something more than shanghai his comic book.
From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls
Research involving a group of scientists from Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Stanford University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences points to an intriguing possibility.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 4, 2026
The research was led by scientists from the National Astronomical Observatories of China, the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory of CAS, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, together with researchers participating in DESI.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 3, 2026
Delhi is one of the founding members of the Brics grouping of nations along with Russia and China, and it is also a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation with the two countries.
From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026
Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian was due to take part in a summit starting Monday of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a regional bloc that seeks to be a counterinfluence to the West.
From Barron's ● Aug. 31, 2026
Of course, he was more probably a Shanghai banker’s son whose grand ambition was to become a Shanghai banker.
From "Typical American" by Gish Jen
One may have said that the bantams of the honored guest were not perhaps as small as some other bantams, but that the colossal size of his shanghais was beyond parallel.
From Imaginary Interviews by William Dean Howells
Home was, alas! no longer the snug nest in which she was safe from the slings and shanghais of the world.
From The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson
Once at the embassy she could be shanghaied back to Hong Kong or China.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 22, 2025
Nalini, newly arrived aboard the shanghaied ship, serves as the outsider-observer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 23, 2022
“He argues that he is not a free rider on a bus headed for a destination that he wishes to reach but is more like a person shanghaied for an unwanted voyage.”
From New York Times ● Jun. 27, 2018
The ways in which our attention gets shanghaied by these companies makes us less good as citizens.
From Slate ● Oct. 5, 2017
Me and Katherine still wear our finery from the night we were shanghaied, and these things I’m wearing are for looking pretty, not strolling through a frontier town.
From "Dread Nation" by Justina Ireland
With the Napoleonic wars raging across Europe, the British navy had taken to shanghaiing Americans in foreign ports and at sea to fill out its wartime fleets.
From Time ● Jun. 18, 2012
I asked Alexander Rekunkov, the deputy procurator-general, "Why didn't you send a summons instead of shanghaiing me?"
From Time Magazine Archive
The army's recent practice of shanghaiing young conscripts off the streets is not likely to generate goodwill -- or good soldiers.
From Time Magazine Archive
And shanghaiing, to use a modern term, was not unknown.
From Religious Life of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century The Faith of Our Fathers by G. MacLaren (George MacLaren) Brydon
The cheerful industry of shanghaiing was reduced to a science.
From Complete Story of the San Francisco Horror by Richard Linthicum
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
