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wag

Pronunciation: /wæɡ/

The English word “wag” has 8 meanings listed here.

verb

  1. To swing from side to side, as an animal's tail, or someone's head to express disagreement or disbelief.
  2. To play truant from school.
  3. To go; to proceed; to move; to progress.
  4. To move continually, especially in gossip; said of the tongue.
  5. To leave; to depart.
  6. Of the tail (lower order of the batting lineup): to score more runs than expected.

noun

  1. An oscillating movement.
  2. A witty person.

Etymology

From Middle English waggen, probably from Old English wagian (“to wag, wave, shake”) with reinforcement from Old Norse vaga (“to wag, waddle”); both from Proto-Germanic *wagōną (“to wag”). Related to English way. The verb may be regarded as an iterative or emphatic form of waw (verb), which is often nearly synonymous; it was used, e.g., of a loose tooth. Parallel formations from the same root are…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.