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Wag   /wæg/   Listen
noun
Wag  n.  
1.
The act of wagging; a shake; as, a wag of the head. (Colloq.)
2.
A man full of sport and humor; a ludicrous fellow; a humorist; a wit; a joker. "We wink at wags when they offend." "A counselor never pleaded without a piece of pack thread in his hand, which he used to twist about a finger all the while he was speaking; the wags used to call it the thread of his discourse."



verb
Wag  v. t.  (past & past part. wagged; pres. part. wagging)  To move one way and the other with quick turns; to shake to and fro; to move vibratingly; to cause to vibrate, as a part of the body; as, to wag the head. "No discerner durst wag his tongue in censure." "Every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head." Note: Wag expresses specifically the motion of the head and body used in buffoonery, mirth, derision, sport, and mockery.



Wag  v. i.  
1.
To move one way and the other; to be shaken to and fro; to vibrate. "The resty sieve wagged ne'er the more."
2.
To be in action or motion; to move; to get along; to progress; to stir. (Colloq.) ""Thus we may see," quoth he, "how the world wags.""
3.
To go; to depart; to pack oft. (R.) "I will provoke him to 't, or let him wag."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Wag" Quotes from Famous Books



... had been tied in his lifetime began to wag. The dark passages of his history, of the doors to which he had held the keys, were thrown open. And a horrified town discovered that their respected fellow-citizen had been a man of foul life, guilty of many a fraud and of many a crime, and that a dog's death had been too good a death ...
— Stories of the Border Marches • John Lang and Jean Lang

... majority of us so poor, that I was not able, with great industry, to find more than fifty persons, mostly young tradesmen, willing to pay down for this purpose forty shillings each, and ten shillings per annum. On this little fund we began. The books were imported; the library wag opened one day in the week for lending to the subscribers, on their promissory notes to pay double the value if not duly returned. The institution soon manifested its utility, was imitated by other towns, and in other provinces. The libraries were ...
— The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin • Benjamin Franklin

... fortunetellers, who prey upon the folly of the superstitious. With a treatise on physiognomy laid on a desk before them, they call out to this man that he has an ill-omened forehead, and to that man that the space between his nose and his lips is unlucky. Their tongues wag like flowing water until the passers-by are attracted to their stalls. If the seer finds a customer, he closes his eyes, and, lifting the divining-sticks reverently to his forehead, mutters incantations between his teeth. Then, suddenly parting the sticks in ...
— Tales of Old Japan • Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford

... yellow road, up over the hill by the signal corps tents, across Wig-Wag Park to the woods beyond, and sat down on a log with his letter. He told himself that it was likely one of those fool letters the fellows were getting all the time from silly girls who were uniform-crazy. He wouldn't answer it, of course, and he felt ...
— The Search • Grace Livingston Hill

... at Nineveh, the woman, known to-day simply as Niang-tzu, walked up and down the streets of the city, warning all of the coming calamity. She was laughed at and looked upon as mad by the careless people. A pork-butcher in the town, a noted wag, took some pig's blood and sprinkled it round the eyes of the stone lions. This had the desired effect, for when Niang-tzu saw the blood she fled from the city amid the jeers and laughter of the inhabitants. Before many hours had passed, ...
— Myths and Legends of China • E. T. C. Werner


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