Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The adult male of various deer, especially the red deer.
  • noun An animal, especially a pig, castrated after reaching sexual maturity.
  • noun A person who attends a social gathering unaccompanied by a partner, especially a man who is unaccompanied by a woman.
  • noun A social gathering for men only.
  • adjective Of or for men only.
  • adjective Pornographic.
  • adverb Unaccompanied.
  • intransitive verb To attend a social gathering unaccompanied by a partner. Used especially of men.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In commercial slang, to act as a stag on the stock exchange. See stag, n., 2.
  • To follow warily, as a deer-stalker does a deer; dog; watch
  • To cut off (trousers at the knee, or boots at the ankle).
  • noun The male of various animals, especially of the deer tribe.
  • noun In commercial slang: An outside irregular dealer in stocks, not a member of the exchange.
  • noun A person who applies for the allotment of shares in a joint-stock company, not because he wishes to hold the shares, but because he hopes to sell the allotment at a premium. If he fails in this he forbears to pay the deposit, and the allotment is forfeited.
  • noun A romping girl; a hoyden.
  • noun The color of the stag; a red dirty-brown color.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb (Com.), Cant To act as a “stag,” or irregular dealer in stocks.
  • transitive verb Prov. Eng. or Slang To watch; to dog, or keep track of.
  • noun The adult male of the red deer (Cervus elaphus), a large European species closely related to the American elk, or wapiti.
  • noun The male of certain other species of large deer.
  • noun Prov. Eng. A colt, or filly; also, a romping girl.
  • noun A castrated bull; -- called also bull stag, and bull seg. See the Note under Ox.
  • noun Cant, Cant, Cant An outside irregular dealer in stocks, who is not a member of the exchange.
  • noun Cant One who applies for the allotment of shares in new projects, with a view to sell immediately at a premium, and not to hold the stock.
  • noun (Zoöl.), Prov. Eng. The European wren.
  • noun (Zoöl.) any one of numerous species of lamellicorn beetles belonging to Lucanus and allied genera, especially Lucanus cervus of Europe and Lucanus dama of the United States. The mandibles are large and branched, or forked, whence the name. The larva feeds on the rotten wood of dead trees. Called also horned bug, and horse beetle.
  • noun [Slang, U.S.] a dance by men only.
  • noun (Zoöl.) the babiroussa.
  • noun (Zoöl.) any one of several species of large branching corals of the genus Madrepora, which somewhat resemble the antlers of the stag, especially Madrepora cervicornis, and Madrepora palmata, of Florida and the West Indies.
  • noun (Bot.) an Australian and West African fern (Platycerium alcicorne) having the large fronds branched like a stag's horns; also, any species of the same genus.
  • noun (Bot.) a common American shrub (Rhus typhina) having densely velvety branchlets. See Sumac.
  • noun [Slang, U. S.] a party consisting of men only.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a parasitic dipterous insect of the family Hippoboscidæ, which lives upon the stag and is usually wingless. The same species lives also upon the European grouse, but in that case has wings.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An adult male deer.
  • noun A colt, or filly.
  • noun A romping girl.
  • noun An improperly or late castrated bull or ram – called also a bull seg. See the Note under ox.
  • noun An outside irregular dealer in stocks, who is not a member of the exchange.
  • noun One who applies for the allotment of shares in new projects, with a view to sell immediately at a premium, and not to hold the stock.
  • noun The European wren.
  • noun An unmarried male, a bachelor; a male not accompanying a female at a social event.
  • noun A social event for males held in honor of a groom on the eve of his wedding, attended by male friends of the groom, sometimes a fund-raiser.
  • verb intransitive, UK To act as a "stag", an irregular dealer in stocks.
  • verb transitive To watch; to dog, or keep track of.
  • adverb Of a man, attending a formal social function without a date.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb attend a dance or a party without a female companion
  • verb watch, observe, or inquire secretly
  • noun adult male deer

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English stagge, from Old English stagga; see stegh- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English steg, stagge, from Old English stagga, stacga ("a stag") and Old Norse steggi, steggr ("a male animal"), both from Proto-Germanic *staggijô, *staggijaz (“male, male deer, porcupine”), from Proto-Indo-European *stegʰ-, *stengʰ- (“to sting; rod, blade; sharp, stiff”). Cognate with Icelandic steggi, steggur ("stag") and Albanian shtagë ("long stick, pole, schaft"). Related to staggard, staggon.

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Examples

  • As the word a stag is the name of a single complex idea; but the word stags by a change of termination adds to this

    Note XIV 1803

  • Some of the chapters in that section involve game theory, and one of them covers the game known as the stag hunt.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » The Stag Hunt. 2007

  • Once the stag is solitary, the huntsman's assistant, the "whipper-in," is supposed to bring up the full pack, and the hunt's members and guests fall in behind the hounds.

    Masters of the Hunt P. J. O'Rourke 2005

  • What happens to the stag is that the huntsman walks over to it and prosaically shoots it in the head with a special short-barreled, folding-stock shotgun.

    Masters of the Hunt P. J. O'Rourke 2005

  • What happens to the stag is that the huntsman walks over to it and prosaically shoots it in the head with a special short-barreled, folding-stock shotgun.

    Masters of the Hunt P. J. O'Rourke 2005

  • The huntsman brings in older, experienced hounds, called "tufters," to separate the stag from the herd.

    Masters of the Hunt P. J. O'Rourke 2005

  • The huntsman brings in older, experienced hounds, called "tufters," to separate the stag from the herd.

    Masters of the Hunt P. J. O'Rourke 2005

  • Once the stag is solitary, the huntsman's assistant, the "whipper-in," is supposed to bring up the full pack, and the hunt's members and guests fall in behind the hounds.

    Masters of the Hunt P. J. O'Rourke 2005

  • The stag is taken to the kennel and skinned, and all the meat cut into small pieces and put again into the hide, and the hounds then, in this cold-blooded way, rush at a mess, instead of the whole pack, in a state of excitement, falling on the hunted animal reeking with fatigue.

    The Autobiography of Liuetenant-General Sir Harry Smith, Baronet of Aliwal on the Sutlej, G. C. B. 1903

  • "It is no shame for me," said Credhe, "I to die for grief after Cael, since the stag is shortening his life sorrowing after the hind."

    Gods and Fighting Men Lady Gregory 1892

Comments

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  • This is a strange word.

    November 15, 2008

  • A large, dead tree. Possibly this usage is just limited to Australia. Derivation...maybe from resemblance of crown of branches to stag antlers?

    July 24, 2014