shag1
- rough, matted hair, wool, or the like.
- a mass of this.
- 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.
- a cloth with a nap, as of silk or a heavy or rough woolen fabric.
- a rug or carpet with a thick, shaggy pile.
- a coarse tobacco cut into fine shreds.
- to make or become rough or shaggy.
Origin of shag1
shag2
- a small cormorant, Phalacrocorax aristotelis, of European coasts.
- any of several small cormorants of the Southern Hemisphere.
Origin of shag2
shag3
- to dance a step with a vigorous hopping on each foot.
- this dance step.
Origin of shag3
shag4
- to chase or follow after; pursue.
- to go after and bring back; fetch.
- Baseball. to retrieve and throw back (fly balls) in batting practice.
- shag ass, Slang: Vulgar. to depart, especially hurriedly; get going.
Origin of shag4
Related Words
only, unattended, tapestry, carpeting, mat, cigarette, crop, smoking, fly, shoot, rush, travel, dash, race, jog, sprint, falter, pull, lag, chaseExamples from the Web for shag
Historical Examples
They love Carlo and Shag, and are never afraid when they are with them.
Bird Stories and Dog StoriesAnonymous
They ordered horses an' a outfit, and Shag Bunce is goin' with 'em.
The Man of the DesertGrace Livingston Hill
No pony of his outfit, be he ever so fleet, could get far ahead of Shag Bunce.
The Man of the DesertGrace Livingston Hill
She is the keeper's daughter, you know, and often goes out with Shag and me.
MoragJanet Milne Rae
She looked up with such kind beautiful eyes when Shag and I passed.
MoragJanet Milne Rae
shag1
- a matted tangle, esp of hair, wool, etc
- a napped fabric, usually a rough wool
- shredded coarse tobacco
- (tr) to make shaggy
Word Origin
shag2
- a cormorant, esp the green cormorant (Phalacrocorax aristotelis)
- like a shag on a rock Australian slang abandoned and alone
Word Origin
shag3
- to have sexual intercourse with (a person)
- (tr often foll by out; usually passive) to exhaust; tire
- an act of sexual intercourse
Word Origin
usage
Word Origin and History for shag
n.
1590s, "cloth having a velvet nap on one side," perhaps from Old English sceacga "rough matted hair or wool," from Proto-Germanic *skagjan (cf. Old Norse skegg, Swedish skägg "beard"), perhaps related to Old High German scahho "promontory," Old Norse skagi "a cape, headland," with a connecting sense of "jutting out, projecting." But the word appears to be missing in Middle English. Of tobacco, "cut in fine shreds," it is recorded from 1789; of carpets, rugs, etc., from 1946.
v.1
"copulate with," 1788, probably from obsolete verb shag (late 14c.) "to shake, waggle," which probably is connected to shake.
And þe boot, amydde þe water, was shaggid. [Wyclif]
Cf. shake it in U.S. blues slang from 1920s, ostensibly with reference to dancing. But cf. also shag (v.), used from 1610s in a sense "to roughen or make shaggy." Also the name of a dance popular in U.S. 1930s and '40s. Related: Shagged; shagging.
v.2
in baseball, "to go after and catch" (fly balls), by 1913, of uncertain origin. Century Dictionary has it as a secondary sense of a shag (v.) "to rove about as a stroller or beggar" (1851), which is perhaps from shack (n.) "disreputable fellow" (1680s), short for shake-rag, an old term for a beggar.