WIG (wigged, wigging)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: wigged    , wigging   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does wig mean? 

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

1. hairpiece covering the head and made of real or synthetic hair

2. British slang for a scolding

  Familiarity information: WIG used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WIG (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Hairpiece covering the head and made of real or synthetic hair

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

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

false hair; hairpiece; postiche (a covering or bunch of human or artificial hair used for disguise or adornment)

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

grizzle (a grey wig)

horsehair wig (a wig made of horsehair)

periwig; peruke (a wig for men that was fashionable in the 17th and 18th centuries)

Sense 2

Meaning:

British slang for a scolding

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

wig; wigging

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

chiding; objurgation; scolding; tongue-lashing (rebuking a person harshly)

 Context examples 

Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig.

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

The old clerk with the wig, whose name was Mr. Tiffey, had been down on business several times in the course of his career, and had on each occasion penetrated to the breakfast-parlour.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

When you came in here, I'll stake my wig, you meant more than this.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

It will be good for my vanity, I was getting too proud of my wig.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

But his eyes were gazing past us, and glancing round we saw that a man in a brown coat and scratch wig had followed so closely at our heels, that the footmen had let him pass under the impression that he was of our party.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I cured him at last; but he was very bad all the winter—and this was such a day, I could not help going to him up in his room before we set off to advise him not to venture: he was putting on his wig; so I said, 'Coachman, you had much better not go; your Lady and I shall be very safe; you know how steady Stephen is, and Charles has been upon the leaders so often now, that I am sure there is no fear.'

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

When I put that with the voice and figure being the same, and only those things altered which might be changed by a razor or a wig, I could not doubt that it was the same man.

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

“I don't know about treasure,” he said, “but I'll stake my wig there's fever here.”

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Adams is going to be called to the bar almost directly, and is to be an advocate, and to wear a wig.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Settle your wig, Jo, and tell me if I shall telegraph to your mother, or do anything? asked Laurie, who never had been reconciled to the loss of his friend's one beauty.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)