Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Jump To:
  • tea bag
    tea bag
    noun
    a container of thin paper or cloth holding a measured amount of tea leaves for making an individual serving of tea.
  • tea-bag
    tea-bag
    verb (used with object)
    to place one's scrotum in the mouth of (one's sexual partner).

tea bag

1 American  

noun

  • tea bags
    plural
  1. a container of thin paper or cloth holding a measured amount of tea leaves for making an individual serving of tea.


tea-bag 2 American  
[tee-bag] / ˈtiˌbæg /

verb (used with object)

Slang.
tea-bagged, tea-bagging
  1. to place one's scrotum in the mouth of (one's sexual partner).


tea bag British  

noun

  1. a small bag of paper or cloth containing tea leaves, infused in boiling water to make tea

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Usage

What does tea-bag mean? Tea-bagging is the act of placing one's testicles in the mouth of another person, often repeatedly, raising and lowering it like a person dipping a tea bag. Content warning: the following sections include further references to sexual content, which is involved in the history and use of the slang term.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


Etymology

Origin of tea bag1

First recorded in 1900–05

Origin of tea-bag2

From its resemblance to dipping a tea bag in a cup of hot water


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:

The service said in some cases parents had been going without food so their children could eat, or were making items like one tea bag last a week.

From BBC ● May 14, 2025

“You can also ask for the tea bag on the side, if you want the water to cool down for a minute, just so you're at a better brewing temperature.”

From Salon ● May 9, 2025

Jurado swirled around a Rooibos tea bag with a tag read, “Your Actions Prove Your Greatness.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 14, 2024

Her second key tip is to dunk your tea bag up and down.

From New York Times ● Jan. 24, 2024

“This is the second month the directorate has delayed your salary,” she said, and put the tea bag on his saucer in her own cup.

From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Instead she moved to London to become a writer, working a series of “really awful” day jobs, including one in a tea-bag factory.

From New York Times ● Apr. 2, 2023

The idea for the tea-bag protest probably made its way to his in box, indirectly, from a message board attached to the libertarian financial-news blog Market Ticker.

From Salon ● May 14, 2010

Then the hero discovers, courtesy of McDowall's tea-bag reading, that he is pregnant.

From Time Magazine Archive

He'd get the sugar first, and then, if it looked good enough, the flour-bag would come out, then the tea-bag.

From Children of the Bush by Henry Lawson

"That's the tea-bag, and that's the sugar-bag, and that's the flour-bag."

From While the Billy Boils by Henry Lawson

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

Get a word

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Look it up. Learn it forever.

Remember new words for good with VocabTrainer. Expand your vocabulary effortlessly with personalized learning tools that adapt to your goals.

Take me to Vocabulary.com