shanghai

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To kidnap (a man) for compulsory service aboard a ship, especially after drugging him.
2. v. To induce or compel (someone) to do something, especially by fraud or force: We were shanghaied into buying worthless securities.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A very long-legged hen with feathered shanks, reputed to have been introduced from Shanghai, China. The breed (if, despite its great vogue at one time, it could ever claim to be one) is now obsolete, having been developed or differentiated into the different varieties of brahmas and cochins. Also called brahmaputra, brahmapootra.
2. n. Hence A tall person; especially, a tall dandy.
3. n. A long, slender oyster; a stick-up or stuck-up; a coon-heel, rabbit-ear, or razor-blade.
4. n. A kind of fish-hook.
5. Nautical, to render insensible, as a person, by drugs, liquor, or violence, and ship him on a vessel wanting hands, for the purpose of fraudulently securing advance-money and any premium offered for procuring seamen.
6. n. A boys' catapult.
7. To shoot with a shanghai. See shanghai, 5.

Wiktionary

1. v. transitive To force or trick (someone) into joining a ship which is lacking a full crew.
2. v. transitive To abduct or coerce.
3. v. transitive To commandeer; appropriate; hijack
4. n. dated A slingshot.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. Slang, U.S. To intoxicate and ship (a person) as a sailor while in this condition.
2. n. (Zoöl.) A large and tall breed of domestic fowl.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. take (someone) against his will for compulsory service, especially on board a ship
2. n. the largest city of China; located in the east on the Pacific; one of the largest ports in the world