WAG (wagged, wagging)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: wagged    , wagging   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does wag mean? 

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

1. a witty amusing person who makes jokes

2. causing to move repeatedly from side to side

  Familiarity information: WAG used as a noun is rare.

• WAG (verb)
  The verb WAG has 1 sense:

1. move from side to side

  Familiarity information: WAG used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WAG (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A witty amusing person who makes jokes

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

card; wag; wit

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)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Causing to move repeatedly from side to side

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

shake; wag; waggle

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)

• WAG (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they wag    ... he / she / it wags   
Past simple: wagged   
Past participle: wagged   
-ing form: wagging   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Move from side to side

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

wag; waggle

Context example:

The happy dog wagged his tail

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)

 Context examples 

And Toto looked up into her face with his little black eyes and wagged his tail to show he knew what she meant.

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

The one might wag, but the others held their terrible grip on White Fang's throat.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

No, nor any other bird that ever wagged a feather.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In the midst of them was a cart, a long leiter-wagon which swept from side to side, like a dog's tail wagging, with each stern inequality of the road.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I caressed him, and he wagged his great tail; but he looked an eerie creature to be alone with, and I could not tell whence he had come.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Billee wagged his tail appeasingly, turned to run when he saw that appeasement was of no avail, and cried (still appeasingly) when Spitz’s sharp teeth scored his flank.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

“Quite true; I had not thought of it,” I replied, wagging my head sagely.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Such are the views which, with much passionate distortion of his thin features and wagging of his thin, goat-like beard, he poured into our ears all the way from Southampton to Manaos.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

What, the town! he continued, the whole world shall hear of it! and his heart wagged with joy like a lamb’s tail.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Our only chance of safety lay in making a clean job of it, said he, and he would not leave a tongue with power to wag in a witness-box.

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