shag1

[shag] /ʃæg/
noun
1.
rough, matted hair, wool, or the like.
2.
a mass of this.
3.
a hairdo in which hair is cut in slightly uneven, overlapping layers downward from the crown, sometimes with the hair at the front and back hairlines left longer or wispier than the rest.
4.
a cloth with a nap, as of silk or a heavy or rough woolen fabric.
5.
a rug or carpet with a thick, shaggy pile.
6.
a coarse tobacco cut into fine shreds.
verb (used with object), verb (used without object), shagged, shagging.
7.
to make or become rough or shaggy.
Origin
before 1050; Old English sceacga (wooly) hair (not recorded in ME); cognate with Old Norse skegg beard; akin to shaw
Related forms
shaglike, adjective

shag2

[shag] /ʃæg/
noun
1.
a small cormorant, Phalacrocorax aristotelis, of European coasts.
2.
any of several small cormorants of the Southern Hemisphere.
Origin
1560-70; perhaps special use of shag1, applied first to bird's crest

shag3

[shag] /ʃæg/
verb (used without object), shagged, shagging.
1.
to dance a step with a vigorous hopping on each foot.
noun
2.
this dance step.
Origin
1350-1400; perhaps variant of shog

shag4

[shag] /ʃæg/
verb (used with object), shagged, shagging.
1.
to chase or follow after; pursue.
2.
to go after and bring back; fetch.
3.
Baseball. to retrieve and throw back (fly balls) in batting practice.
Idioms
4.
shag ass, Slang: Vulgar. to depart, especially hurriedly; get going.
Origin
1930-35; origin uncertain; see shack2
Examples from the web for shag
  • My grandfather's study is carpeted with white shag, which feels woolly against my bare feet.
  • The carpet in question has a low cut, tightly woven pile as distinguished from a shag type pile carpet.
British Dictionary definitions for shag

shag1

/ʃæɡ/
noun
1.
a matted tangle, esp of hair, wool, etc
2.
a napped fabric, usually a rough wool
3.
shredded coarse tobacco
verb shags, shagging, shagged
4.
(transitive) to make shaggy
Word Origin
Old English sceacga; related to sceagashaw1, Old Norse skegg beard, skagi tip, skōgr forest

shag2

/ʃæɡ/
noun
1.
a cormorant, esp the green cormorant (Phalacrocorax aristotelis)
2.
(Austral, slang) like a shag on a rock, abandoned and alone
Word Origin
C16: special use of shag1, with reference to its crest

shag3

/ʃæɡ/
verb shags, shagging, shagged
1.
to have sexual intercourse with (a person)
2.
(transitive) often foll by out; usually passive. to exhaust; tire
noun
3.
an act of sexual intercourse
Usage note
Though still likely to cause offence to many older or more conservative people, this word has lost a lot of its shock value of late. It seems to have a jocular, relaxed connotation, which most of the other words in this field do not. No doubt its acceptability has been accelerated by its use in the title of an Austin Powers film. Interestingly, though advertisements for the film caused a large number of complaints to the British Advertising Standards Authority, they were not upheld
Word Origin
C20: of unknown origin
Word Origin and History for shag
n.

1590s, "cloth having a velvet nap on one side," perhaps from Old English sceacga "rough matted hair or wool," from Proto-Germanic *skagjan (cf. Old Norse skegg, Swedish skägg "beard"), perhaps related to Old High German scahho "promontory," Old Norse skagi "a cape, headland," with a connecting sense of "jutting out, projecting." But the word appears to be missing in Middle English. Of tobacco, "cut in fine shreds," it is recorded from 1789; of carpets, rugs, etc., from 1946.

v.

"copulate with," 1788, probably from obsolete verb shag (late 14c.) "to shake, waggle," which probably is connected to shake.

And þe boot, amydde þe water, was shaggid. [Wyclif]
Cf. shake it in U.S. blues slang from 1920s, ostensibly with reference to dancing. But cf. also shag (v.), used from 1610s in a sense "to roughen or make shaggy." Also the name of a dance popular in U.S. 1930s and '40s. Related: Shagged; shagging.

in baseball, "to go after and catch" (fly balls), by 1913, of uncertain origin. Century Dictionary has it as a secondary sense of a shag (v.) "to rove about as a stroller or beggar" (1851), which is perhaps from shack (n.) "disreputable fellow" (1680s), short for shake-rag, an old term for a beggar.

Slang definitions & phrases for shag

shag

adjective
  1. With a date or escort: Did you go to the party stag or shag? (1940s+)
  2. Excellent; wonderful (1950s+ Teenagers)
noun
  1. A party or session where boys and girls experiment sexually (1930s+ Teenagers)
  2. person's date or escort; drag: He didn't have a shag for the prom (1950s+)
verb
  1. To do the sex act; boff, screw (1788+)
  2. To depart; leave, esp quickly; shag ass: You'd best shag now (1851+)
  3. To chase: I was allowed to ''shag'' foul balls/ shagging rabbits (1912+)
  4. To tease and harass; hassle, hound (1930s+ Teenagers)
Related Terms

gang bang

[origin unknown; perhaps fr shake by way of shack]