Library / English Dictionary

WAG

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: wagged    , wagging   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Causing to move repeatedly from side to side

Synonyms:

shake; wag; waggle

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("wag" is a kind of...):

agitation (the act of agitating something; causing it to move around (usually vigorously))

Derivation:

wag (move from side to side)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A witty amusing person who makes jokes

Synonyms:

card; wag; wit

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("wag" is a kind of...):

humorist; humourist (someone who acts speaks or writes in an amusing way)

Domain usage:

colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Move from side to side

Example:

The happy dog wagged his tail

Synonyms:

wag; waggle

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "wag" is one way to...):

jiggle; joggle; wiggle (move to and fro)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

wag (causing to move repeatedly from side to side)

Credits

 Context examples: 

When she had entered two or three laborious items in the account-book, Jip would walk over the page, wagging his tail, and smear them all out.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He backed away from her and began writhing and twisting playfully, curvetting and prancing, half rearing and striking his fore paws to the earth, struggling with all his body, from the wheedling eyes and flattening ears to the wagging tail, to express the thought that was in him and that was denied him utterance.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

While she was absent, and out of hearing, a small white spaniel that belonged to one of the chief gardeners, having got by accident into the garden, happened to range near the place where I lay: the dog, following the scent, came directly up, and taking me in his mouth, ran straight to his master wagging his tail, and set me gently on the ground.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

"Look at 'm wag his tail!"

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Ye see, I can't get out o' the habit of caffin' about it all at once; the chafts will wag as they be used to.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Toto only wagged his tail; for, strange to say, he could not speak.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

Of this last Buck was never guilty, though he did see beaten dogs that fawned upon the man, and wagged their tails, and licked his hand.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

His face was ashy pale, beads of perspiration shone upon his brow, and his hands shook until the hunting-crop wagged like a branch in the wind.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"I will tell you in your private ear," replied she, wagging her turban three times with portentous significancy.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Summerlee was on guard, sitting hunched over our small fire, a quaint, angular figure, his rifle across his knees and his pointed, goat-like beard wagging with each weary nod of his head.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)