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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A tangle or mass, especially of rough matted hair.
  2. n. A coarse long nap, as on a woolen cloth.
  3. n. Cloth having such a nap.
  4. n. A rug with a thick rough pile.
  5. n. Coarse shredded tobacco.
  6. v. To make shaggy; roughen.
  7. n. A dance step of the 1930s consisting of a hop on each foot in turn.
  8. v. To perform or execute this dance.
  9. n. Either of two marine birds (Phalacrocorax aristotelis or P. punctatus) of Europe and North Africa, related to the cormorant.
  10. v. To chase and bring back; fetch.
  11. v. Baseball To chase and catch (fly balls) in practice.
  12. v. To engage in sexual intercourse with.
  13. v. To engage in sexual intercourse.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. Rough matted hair, wool, or the like.
  2. n. Hence The nap of cloth, especially when long and coarse.
  3. n. Any cloth having a long nap.
  4. n. A strong tobacco cut into fine shreds.
  5. Rough and coarse; hairy; shaggy.
  6. Made of the cloth called shag.
  7. To roughen or make shaggy: used chiefly in the past participle.
  8. To hang in or form shaggy clusters.
  9. n. In ornithology, a cormorant; especially, the crested cormorant, or scart, Phalacrocorax graculus, of Europe, so called in Great Britain. It is smaller than the common cormorant, when adult of a rich dark glossy green varied with purple and bronze, and in the breeding season has the head crested with bundles of long curly plumes.

Wiktionary

  1. n. Matted material; rough massed hair, fibres etc.
  2. n. Coarse shredded tobacco.
  3. n. A type of rough carpet pile.
  4. n. Several species of sea birds in the family Phalacrocoracidae (cormorant family), especially the common shag or European shag, Phalacrocorax aristotelis, found on European and African coasts.
  5. n. A swing dance.
  6. n. An act of sexual intercourse.
  7. n. A sexual partner
  8. n. A fundraising dance in honour of a couple engaged to be married.
  9. v. To shake, wiggle around.
  10. v. To have sexual intercourse with.
  11. v. To chase after; especially : to chase after and return (a ball) hit usually out of play

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. Coarse hair or nap; rough, woolly hair.
  2. n. A kind of cloth having a long, coarse nap.
  3. n. A kind of prepared tobacco cut fine.
  4. n. Any species of cormorant.
  5. adj. Hairy; shaggy.
  6. v. To make hairy or shaggy; hence, to make rough.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a lively dance step consisting of hopping on each foot in turn
  2. v. dance the shag
  3. n. slang for sexual intercourse
  4. n. a strong coarse tobacco that has been shredded
  5. n. a fabric with long coarse nap
  6. n. a matted tangle of hair or fiber

Etymologies

  1. Middle English *shagge, from Old English sceacga, matted hair.Origin unknown.Perhaps from its shaggy crest.Perhaps from obsolete shag, to shake.Perhaps from obsolete shag, to shake, wiggle.

Examples

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Comments

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  • sionnach I remember the first beach trip I made when I was in graduate school in NC. I had been in the U.S. only about a month, and went with a group from the Newman Center. Everyone in the van on the way down kept talking about all the shagging they would be doing all weekend.

    I was quite discombobulated. Jul 25, 2008

  • sionnach A shag is not a cormorant and vice versa

    See the 2-minute mark on the video.

    (also, if you are interested, the last 3 minutes or so of the preceding segment, i.e. part 3b, where they discuss the Isherwood poem as well) Jul 25, 2008

  • johnmperry Was the film as long ago as 1989? Tempus indeed fugits. I remember it was a crap film, but popular for lines such as "I just want to shag all night". This was before Austin Powers and before the word entered US vernacular. Jul 25, 2008

  • johnmperry The common cormorant (or shag)
    Lays eggs inside a paper bag,
    You follow the idea, no doubt?
    It's to keep the lightning out.

    But what these unobservant birds
    Have never thought of, is that herds
    Of wandering bears might come with buns
    And steal the bags to hold the crumbs.
    -- Christopher Isherwood
    Jul 25, 2008

  • chained_bear In the cormorant sense... see otaries for a usage note. Feb 29, 2008

  • treeseed The shag is a form of swing dancing that evolved from the jitterbug and jump blues of the big band jazz era and originated along the strands between Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina, during the 1940s. It is most often associated with beach music, a genre of rhythm and blues-based songs that lend themselves to this dance form. According to Bo Bryan, a noted shag historian and resident of Beaufort County, the term was coined at Carolina Beach, North Carolina. Today, the shag is a recognized dance in national and international dance competitions held across the United States.

    In the dance the upper body and hips hardly move as the legs do convoluted kicks and fancy footwork. The man is the center of attention and the woman's steps are either mirror steps of the man's or a sort of marking time while he does spins and other gyrations.

    The shag is the state dance of North Carolina and South Carolina, and is still popular amongst residents of both states.

    The 1989 film Shag starring Bridget Fonda, Phoebe Cates, Annabeth Gish, and Page Hannah as four high school friends on their last road trip together before graduation, was filmed in Myrtle Beach and features the Carolina shag.

    _Wikipedia Feb 25, 2008

  • reesetee Eeeew! I remember that hairstyle! Yuck. And I remember shag pile. Thanks for the memories, guys. ;-) Jul 22, 2007

  • slumry In the 1970s or 80s it was a certain kind of haircut; one I never liked because it was too . . .shaggy. ;-) Jul 21, 2007

  • sonofgroucho Then, of course, there is shag pile (as in carpet). Jul 21, 2007

  • reesetee No, no, I suppose you're right....It sounds more like a nature film that way. ;-) Feb 15, 2007

  • seanahan "Austin Powers, the spy who gave me a small cormorant from a European coast" just doesn't have the same ring to it. Feb 14, 2007

  • reesetee A small crested cormorant of Europe and North Africa. Feb 14, 2007

‘shag’ has been looked up 3098 times, loved by 2 people, added to 37 lists, commented on 12 times, and has a Scrabble score of 8.