wag

IPA/wæɡ/
KK[wˈæɡ]IPA/wæɡ/

wag — verb

  • wagpresent simple I / you / we / they
  • wagshe / she / it
  • waggedpast simple
  • wagging-ing form

1. if an animal moves its tail, or a person moves a finger or head, from one side t

1.verbtransitive / intransitiveB2
Definition

if an animal moves its tail, or a person moves a finger or head, from one side to the other in short repeated motions — usually to show feeling or to signal something

Example

Indra's dog wagged its tail every time she came through the front door.

transitive: [animal] wags [tail]

Grandpa Vikram wagged his finger at the boys for sneaking biscuits before dinner.

collocation: wag a/one's finger at someone (mild scolding)

Common collocations
  • wag its tail
  • wag a finger at
  • wag one's head
  • tail wagging furiously
Synonyms
  • shake

    broader: any back-and-forth motion, not limited to tail/finger/head

  • waggle

    informal; smaller and quicker than wag, often playful

  • swish

    smoother side-to-side motion, often of a longer tail or skirt

Grammar Patterns

wag + body part

[body part] wags

Usage Note

Subject is almost always an animal's tail, or a person's finger / head. Other body parts do not wag in normal use — a person does not 'wag' an arm or a leg.

Common Mistakes

The teacher wagged his arms angrily.
The teacher waved his arms angrily.
arms wave, they do not wag; only finger / tail / head wag.
Her tail was wagging happiness.
Her tail was wagging with happiness.
wag does not take a direct emotion as object; use 'with + feeling'.

2. to deliberately skip a day or lesson at school when your parents and teachers ex

2.verbtransitiveC1
Definition

to deliberately skip a day or lesson at school when your parents and teachers expect you to be there

Example

Christopher used to wag school every Friday so he could go surfing at Bondi.

collocation: wag school + [reason for skipping]

Aylin's mother caught her wagging maths class to hang out at the shopping centre.

wag [subject/class] + reason of where the student went instead

Common collocations
  • wag school
  • wag class
  • wag a lesson
  • wag the afternoon
Synonyms
  • skip

    neutral, used worldwide; 'skip school' is the most common everyday phrase

  • skive

    British informal; also used about adults skipping work, not only students

  • play hooky

    American informal; same meaning but only used by Americans

Antonyms
  • attend

    formal opposite — to be present at school as required

Grammar Patterns

wag school

wag class

Usage Note

Mainly Australian and New Zealand informal usage. British English usually says 'skive off' and American English 'play hooky' or 'skip school' in the same situation.

Common Mistakes

Workers wagged the office after lunch.
Workers skipped out on the office after lunch.
wag in this sense is specifically for students missing school, not adults missing work.
She wagged from school.
She wagged school.
no 'from'; wag in this sense takes school / class directly as the object.

wag — noun

Word family

  • waggle
    verbC1
  • waggish
    adjectiveC2
  • wagger
    nounC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

All five describe back-and-forth motion, but the body part decides which word fits. 'Wag' is reserved for a tail (animals), a finger (a person scolding or warning), or a head (a small side-to-side motion meaning 'no' or 'I'm not sure'). 'Wave' covers larger arm and hand motions, often as a greeting: you wave at a friend across the street, you do not wag at them. 'Shake' is the most general — you can shake a hand, shake your head, shake a bottle — and it suggests up-and-down motion as often as side-to-side. 'Swish' is reserved for longer, smoother, single sweeps of a long tail or a skirt: a cow swishes its tail, but a small terrier wags its tail. 'Waggle' is informal and playful, with smaller and quicker motion than wag: you waggle your eyebrows at a joke, you wag your finger to scold.

wag ↗wave ↗shake ↗swish ↗waggle

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

Prepositions

  • wag at someone
  • wag with [feeling]

Etymology

Old NorseMiddle EnglishEnglish

Goes back to Middle English 'waggen', meaning to move back and forth, probably from an Old Norse root meaning to sway or rock. The 'joker' noun sense is a separate development — it is a shortening of the older slang word 'waghalter', literally 'one who is heading for the gallows' (i.e. a rascal). The modern 'WAG' (wife / girlfriend of a sportsman) is unrelated in origin: it was coined in 21st-century British tabloids from the initials of 'Wives And Girlfriends'.

First known use

13th century

13th century, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1 Noun (1)