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
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
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
Assigned to the Comintern’s Far Eastern Bureau, the pair had come to Shanghai to bolster the beleaguered Chinese Communist Party.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
When the Shanghai Municipal Police arrested them for suspected communist activities on June 15, 1931, the pair identified themselves as the Belgians Hilaire Noulens and Marie Motte—no, it was Fernand and Marie Vandercruyssen.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
My father came home one evening with the news that Mr. Hull had been transferred to the Shanghai Y.M.C.A.
From "Homesick" by Jean Fritz
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
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
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
The ways in which our attention gets shanghaied by these companies makes us less good as citizens.
From Slate ● Oct. 5, 2017
A romantic comedy that is shanghaied by Kate’s domineering presence, the play does not really delve into religious questions but instead studies blind intolerance in an otherwise engaging if maddening individual.
From New York Times ● Aug. 2, 2013
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
But I don't know whether the attempted shanghaiing of Ruth was premeditated or not.
From Fire Mountain A Thrilling Sea Story by Norman Springer
"This is worse than shanghaiing for a Liverpool boardin'-house, and I won't—" "S-s-s-sh!" hissed Hiram, flapping his hand.
From The Skipper and the Skipped Being the Shore Log of Cap'n Aaron Sproul by Holman Day
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.
