STAG

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does stag mean? 

• STAG (noun)
  The noun STAG has 2 senses:

1. a male deer, especially an adult male red deer

2. adult male deer

  Familiarity information: STAG used as a noun is rare.

• STAG (verb)
  The verb STAG has 3 senses:

1. attend a dance or a party without a female companion

2. give away information about somebody

3. watch, observe, or inquire secretly

  Familiarity information: STAG used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• STAG (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A male deer, especially an adult male red deer

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

hart; stag

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

American elk; Cervus elaphus; elk; red deer; wapiti (common deer of temperate Europe and Asia)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Adult male deer

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

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

buck (mature male of various mammals (especially deer or antelope))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "stag"):

royal; royal stag (stag with antlers of 12 or more branches)

• STAG (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they stag    ... he / she / it stags   
Past simple: stagged   
Past participle: stagged   
-ing form: stagging   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Attend a dance or a party without a female companion

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sense 2

Meaning:

Give away information about somebody

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

betray; denounce; give away; grass; rat; shit; shop; snitch; stag; tell on

Context example:

He told on his classmate who had cheated on the exam

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

inform (impart knowledge of some fact, state of affairs, or event to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "stag"):

sell someone out (give information that compromises others)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s PP

Sense 3

Meaning:

Watch, observe, or inquire secretly

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

sleuth; snoop; spy; stag

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

monitor; supervise (keep tabs on; keep an eye on; keep under surveillance)

"Stag" entails doing...:

enquire; inquire; investigate (conduct an inquiry or investigation of)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

 Context examples 

And see this stag, Alleyne, with the cross betwixt its horns.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

When the wolf was gone, came a dog, a stag, a hare, a bear, a lion, and all the beasts of the forest, one after the other.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

’E would fight like a stag, and ’e was that ’ard that ’e would let any swell knock ’im down for ’alf-a-crown. ’E ’ad no face to spoil, d’ye see, for ’e was always the ugliest man in England.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He had heard, indeed, some curious Houyhnhnms observe, that in most herds there was a sort of ruling Yahoo (as among us there is generally some leading or principal stag in a park), who was always more deformed in body, and mischievous in disposition, than any of the rest; that this leader had usually a favourite as like himself as he could get, whose employment was to lick his master’s feet and posteriors, and drive the female Yahoos to his kennel; for which he was now and then rewarded with a piece of ass’s flesh.

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

Nor was there any way, out of her inexperience, for her to know that the cosmic feel she caught of him was that most cosmic of things, love, which with equal power drew men and women together across the world, compelled stags to kill each other in the rutting season, and drove even the elements irresistibly to unite.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

High and bluff the English cog; long, black and swift the pirate galleys, like two fierce lean wolves which have seen a lordly and unsuspecting stag walk past their forest lair.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The little hare would eat a cabbage-leaf out of their hands, the roe grazed by their side, the stag leapt merrily by them, and the birds sat still upon the boughs, and sang whatever they knew.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

The one to whom Felton found himself opposed was a tall stripling with a stag's head upon his shield, while Sir Nigel's man was broad and squat with plain steel harness, and a pink and white torse bound round his helmet.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

By my faith, sirs, he continued, half turning in his saddle to address his escort, unless my woodcraft is sadly at fault, it is a stag of six tines and the finest that we have roused this journey.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The serf was about to reply, when the clear ringing call of a bugle burst from the wood close behind them, and Alleyne caught sight for an instant of the dun side and white breast of a lordly stag glancing swiftly betwixt the distant tree trunks.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)