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.
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
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.
First recorded in 1855–60; after Shanghai
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.
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
During an inspection tour of a Shanghai robotics startup last year, Xi watched the advanced robots move, then joked to the engineers: “Can we have robots join the team?”
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 16, 2026
Jonathan leads a team of two dozen correspondents and researchers in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore and New York, with responsibility for the Chinese mainland and Taiwan.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 12, 2026
At a 2015 match in Shanghai, he dished out nine yellow cards and three red ones – a milestone in his refereeing career that earned him the nickname "card master".
From BBC • Jun. 9, 2026
There were also hefty losses in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore.
From Barron's • Jun. 8, 2026
And especially, strangely, this: he shouldn’t have taken that watch from his mother when he boarded the boat in Shanghai.
From "Typical American" by Gish Jen
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.
