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wag
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
wag
I.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a dog wags its tail (=moves its tail from side to side to show pleasure)
▪ The dog stood up and wagged his tail.
a dog wags its tail/its tail wags
▪ Domino rushed to meet her, tail wagging with excitement.
a dog wags its tail/its tail wags
▪ Domino rushed to meet her, tail wagging with excitement.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
finger
▪ He shouted and wagged his finger.
▪ She wags her finger at his thumb-sized back.
▪ The second man smiles, wags his index finger and picks up a copy of his company's annual report.
▪ Walking sticks and umbrellas menace me, wagging fingers harass my sleep.
▪ The man with the thin hair continued to shout and wag his finger.
▪ John wagged his finger at her.
▪ Doktor wagged a metronome finger at me.
▪ I wagged my finger at him, telling him that he had been extremely lucky.
head
▪ Carlos wagged his head at her.
▪ She wagged her head, her chin on her knees.
▪ The old man wobbled and stumbled backwards, wagging his head as if he were trying to shake something out of it.
▪ Pete: wag your head like a puppet.
tail
▪ Domino hurtled past him, tail wagging madly, looking up expectantly at the stranger.
▪ I overcontrolled the pedals, making the tail wag back and forth.
▪ Every time they got near him, he backed off, ecstatic with excitement, tail wagging furiously.
▪ Eddie, however, having no tail to wag, was simply smiling, something he's very good at.
▪ Domino, their elderly Dalmation, rushed to meet her, tail wagging with excitement.
▪ Racing back into the hall with tails wagging furiously, they almost knocked Georgina over.
▪ Loden's hackles subsided, his tail began to wag.
tongue
▪ This is a small island and tongues are beginning to wag.
▪ Now the tongues would start wagging round MI5, MI6 and the other, smaller Intelligence Agencies.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
it's (a case of) the tail wagging the dog
set tongues wagging
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ "You shouldn't have done that!'' Mum said, wagging her finger at me.
▪ A dog wags its tail in order to show friendliness and pleasure.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Beards wagged, and noodles dangled over them.
▪ Every time they got near him, he backed off, ecstatic with excitement, tail wagging furiously.
▪ She wagged dutifully but I could sense she was somewhat overwhelmed - and that was only the staff!
▪ Tail wagging his thanks, he took the handle of the basket in his mouth and padded happily along beside Angela.
▪ The old man wobbled and stumbled backwards, wagging his head as if he were trying to shake something out of it.
▪ They took a peek, and then did everything but lay down and wag their tails.
▪ Toto only wagged his tail; for, strange to say, he could not speak.
▪ When I said something to him he would look, wag, and put his snout back to the window.
II.noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ All drawn by the wag Willie Rushton, they are each priced at £75.
▪ As one wag put it, as it was the opening of the toilets, perhaps they should have invited Lou Macari.
▪ Washington wags suggest the Clintons may add a sound-proofed music room where Bill can relax with his saxophone.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Wag

Wag \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.
    --Dryden.

  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.''
    --Shak.

  3. To go; to depart; to pack oft. [R.]

    I will provoke him to 't, or let him wag.
    --Shak.

Wag

Wag \Wag\, n. [From Wag, v.]

  1. The act of wagging; a shake; as, a wag of the head.

  2. [Perhaps shortened from wag-halter a rogue.] A man full of sport and humor; a ludicrous fellow; a humorist; a wit; a joker.

    We wink at wags when they offend.
    --Dryden.

    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.
    --Addison.

Wag

Wag \Wag\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Wagged; p. pr. & vb. n. Wagging.] [OE. waggen; probably of Scand. origin; cf. Sw. vagga to rock a cradle, vagga cradle, Icel. vagga, Dan. vugge; akin to AS. wagian to move, wag, wegan to bear, carry, G. & D. bewegen to move, and E. weigh. [root]136. See Weigh.] 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.
--Shak.

Every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.
--Jer. xviii. 16.

Note: Wag expresses specifically the motion of the head and body used in buffoonery, mirth, derision, sport, and mockery.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
wag

"person fond of making jokes," 1550s, perhaps a shortening of waghalter "gallows bird," person destined to swing in a noose or halter, applied humorously to mischievous children, from wag (v.) + halter. Or possibly directly from wag (v.); compare wagger "one who stirs up or agitates" (late 14c.).

wag

"act of wagging," 1580s, from wag (v.).

wag

early 13c. (intransitive), "waver, vacillate, lack steadfastness," probably from a Scandinavian source (compare Old Norse vagga "a cradle," Danish vugge "rock a cradle," Old Swedish wagga "fluctuate, rock" a cradle), and in part from Old English wagian "move backwards and forwards;" all from Proto-Germanic *wag- (cognates: Old High German weggen, Gothic wagjan "to wag"), probably from PIE root *wegh- "to move about" (see weigh).\n

\nTransitive meaning "move (something) back and forth or up and down" is from c.1300; of dogs and their tails from mid-15c.: "and whanne they [hounds] see the hure maystre they wol make him cheere and wagge hur tayles upon him." [Edward, Duke of York, "The Master of Game," 1456]. Related: Wagged; wagging. Wag-at-the-wall (1825) was an old name for a hanging clock with pendulum and weights exposed.

Wiktionary
wag

n. 1 (context business or military slang US English) A wild-assed guess; a rough estimate. 2 A wife or girlfriend of a sports star or other celebrity, originally and especially of an association football player.

WordNet
wag
  1. n. a witty amusing person who makes jokes [syn: wit, card]

  2. causing to move repeatedly from side to side [syn: waggle, shake]

  3. [also: wagging, wagged]

wag
  1. v. move from side to side; "The happy dog wagged his tail" [syn: waggle]

  2. [also: wagging, wagged]

Wikipedia
Wag

Wag is a traditional highland district in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia, in the approximate location of the modern Wag Hemra Zone. Weld Blundell described the district as bounded on the south by the mountains of Lasta, on the east and north by the Tellare River, and the west by the Tekezé. The major urban center is the town of Sokota, which has been a major marketplace for centuries.

James Bruce states that Wag was given to the heirs of the deposed Zagwe dynasty, when the Solomonic dynasty was restored to the throne of Ethiopia in 1270. The head of the fallen Zagwe family accepted the district as well as the title of Wagshum as part of the settlement for their loss. However, the province is mentioned for the first time only in the 14th century.

Wag (disambiguation)

Wag is a highland district in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia.

Wag or WAG may also refer to:

Usage examples of "wag".

Mina Gelmann wagged an admonitory finger in the direction of the bobbing blue ellipse.

Trader had discovered the war wags hidden deep in the heart of the Apps, way north and east.

I once saw her gallop down a steep hill in the Arboretum to escape a dog, a German shepherd puppy that had trotted up to her, its tail wagging, for a head pat.

Wags thought so too as the dog avidly sniffed around the base of the stalls.

Tail wagging, he ushered me into the sitting room, where he and Bev were watching TV.

Every minute the king passed her sofa, Biche raised her beautiful head and greeted her royal friend with an intelligent and friendly glance and a gentle wagging of her tail, and this salutation was returned each time by Frederick before he passed on.

To his surprise, Bock recognized him as a friend and wagged his tail slightly, but still continued to growl.

My intended adores you, but you did wisely not to accept his invitation, for you would have found everything so poor, and besides tongues might have been set wagging to my disadvantage.

Brer Tarrypin, he flapped he foots, en wagged he head, en shuck he tail, but all dis aint do no good.

The windows on the Dovetail side of the gatehouse were larger, and she could see the two corgi dogs outside, peering in through the lead latticework, flabbergasted that they had, through some enormous lacuna in procedure, been left on the outside, wagging their tails somewhat uncertainly, as if, in a world that allowed such mistakes, nothing could be counted on.

A curly-haired dog which had been spending the night on a dry dunghill now rose in lazy fashion and, wagging its tail, walked slowly across the courtyard.

Run, laddie, and dinna be standing there wagging your fule tongue for naething.

He begged me to help Auld Jock, and what did I do but let my fule tongue wag about doctors.

Away from the wagging tongues and gossip hounds of Shira and surrounding villages, perhaps Gena would know peace.

Freke and Gere immediately shrank back, wagging their pom-poms furiously.