Definition of "wag"

wag

/wæɡ/

verb
third-person singular simple present wags, present participle wagging, simple past and past participle wagged
1. To swing from side to side, as an animal's tail, or someone's head, to express disagreement or disbelief.
  Quotations
  No discerner durst wag his tongue in censure.
  1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene i]
  Every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Bible Jeremiah:18–16
2. (UK, Australia, slang) To play truant from school.
  Quotations
  "My misfortunes all began in wagging, Sir; but what could I do, exceptin' wag?" "Excepting what?" said Mr. Carker. "Wag, Sir. Wagging from school." "Do you mean pretending to go there, and not going?" said Mr. Carker. "Yes, Sir, that's wagging, Sir."
  1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, “chapter xxii”, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848
  They had "wagged it" from school, as they termed it, which..meant truancy in all its forms.
  1901, William Sylvester Walker, Blood, i. 13
  […] she wagged English and Science just to go in his car […]
  2005, Arctic Monkeys, “Bigger Boys and Stolen Sweethearts”, in I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor
3. (intransitive, chiefly obsolete) To go; to proceed; to move; to progress.
  Quotations
  "Thus we may see," quoth he, "how the world wags."
  c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)]
4. To move continually, especially in gossip; said of the tongue.
5. (intransitive, obsolete) To leave; to depart.
  Quotations
  I will provoke him to 't, or let him wag.
  1623, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor
noun
plural wags
1. An oscillating movement.
2. A witty person.
  Quotations
  Was not my LordThe veryer Wag o'th' two?
  c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene ii]
  But being a bit of a wag, and relishing a good joke amazingly, he concluded to have a little fun, and at the same time learn his friend a lesson concerning his negligent custom.
  1855 July 1, anonymous author, The Judge's Big Shirt‎, Yankee-notions
  “A nice, juicy steak,” he is said to have called for, “French fries, apple pie and a cup of coffee.” It is probable that he really said “a coff of cuppee,” however, as he was a wag of the first water and loved a joke as well as the next king.
  1922, Robert C. Benchley, chapter XXII, in Love Conquers All, Henry Holt & Company, page 111
  By Wednesday it had already won art-world notoriety, and on Saturday it achieved a public visibility that any artist would envy, after a self-promoting wag tore the banana off the wall and gobbled it up.
  2019 December 8, Jason Farago, “A (Grudging) Defense of the $120,000 Banana”, in The New York Times‎
  Many people can't work from home - as one wag observed: "Well, I would, but the wife doesn't like me laying tarmac in the front room!"
  2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 70

Definition of "wag"

wag

verb

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noun

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