Definition of "shanghai"

Oftentimes the approach is to shanghai an unsuspecting victim.

1974 September 30, ‘Final Report on the Activities of the Children of God'

Their power had a flaw to it. They could be shanghaied in toilets.

1985, Margaret Atwood, “Birth Day”, in The Handmaid’s Tale, Toronto, Ont.: McClelland and Stewart, page 143

It was the strangest galley: the sounds, the steam, he's screaming at his coworkers. I felt like I'd been shanghaied.

1999 June 24, ‘The Resurrection of Tom Waits’, in Rolling Stone, quoted in Innocent When You Dream, Orion (2006), page 256

Petitioner strenuously objects to this free-rider label. He argues that he is not a free rider on a bus headed for a destination that he wishes to reach but is more like a person shanghaied for an unwanted voyage.

2018 Janus v. AFSCME, Council 31, 138 S. Ct. 2448

Cochins or Shanghaes.

1853, W.B. Tegetmeier, Profitable Poultry, page 19

The ‘shanghai’ is the glaring daub required by some frame-makers for cheap auctions. They are turned out at so much by the day's labor, or at from $12 to $24 a dozen, by the piece.

1880 Jan., Scribner's Monthly, p. 365

‘Shanghai’ may be played by teams of 8, in pairs, individually, or, in fact, any number.

1930, Anchor Magazine, page 196

The hot twenty—including local favourites George Simmons, Tony Brown, Mick Norris and Lew Walker—have to sweat through nineteen 501s, one 1,001, one 2,001, one round-the-board-on-doubles, one shanghai and one halve-it.

1977 May 10, Daily Mirror, p. 30

Turn, turn thy shang~hay dread aside,Nor touch that little bird

1863 Oct. 24, Leader, p. 17

They scrounged around the camp […] and held out their filthy wings to the feeble sun, making themselves an easy target for Charles's shanghai.

1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber and Faber, published 2003, page 206

However, certain objects are excluded from being treated as a gun. These include a longbow, crossbow, slingshot or shanghai even though it is capable of propelling a projectile by means of an explosive force.

2020, Parliament of Singapore, “Guns, Explosives and Weapons Control Bill”, in Republic of Singapore Government Gazette‎, page 161