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Fine Dictionary

wag

wæg
WordNet
  1. (v) wag
    move from side to side "The happy dog wagged his tail"
  2. (n) wag
    causing to move repeatedly from side to side
  3. (n) wag
    a witty amusing person who makes jokes
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
  1. Wag
    A man full of sport and humor; a ludicrous fellow; a humorist; a wit; a joker. "We wink at wags when they offend.", "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."
  2. Wag
    The act of wagging; a shake; as, a wag of the head.
  3. Wag
    To be in action or motion; to move; to get along; to progress; to stir. "“Thus we may see,” quoth he, “how the world wags .”"
  4. Wag
    To go; to depart; to pack oft. "I will provoke him to 't, or let him wag ."
  5. Wag
    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.Wag expresses specifically the motion of the head and body used in buffoonery, mirth, derision, sport, and mockery. "No discerner durst wag his tongue in censure.", "Every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head."
  6. Wag
    To move one way and the other; to be shaken to and fro; to vibrate. "The resty sieve wagged ne'er the more."
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
  1. wag
    To cause to move up and down, backward and forward, or from side to side, alternately, as a small body jointed or attached to, or connected with, a larger one; cause to move one way or another, as on a pivot or joint, or on or from something by which the body moved is supported; cause to shake, oscillate, or vibrate slightly. From the quick, jerky, or abrupt motion indicated by the word, an idea of playful, sportive, mocking, scornful, or derisive motion is associated with it in certain phrases: as, to wag the head or the finger.
  2. wag
    To nudge.
  3. wag
    To move backward and forward, up and down, or from side to side, alternately, as if connected with a larger body by a joint. pivot, or any flexible or loose attachment; oscillate; sway or swing; vibrate: an arrow is said to wag when it vibrates in the air.
  4. wag
    To be in motion or action; make progress; continue a course or career; stir.
  5. wag
    To move on or away; be off; depart; pack off; be gone.
  6. (n) wag
    The act of wagging; a shake; an oscillation.
  7. (n) wag
    One who is given to joking or jesting; a witty or humorous person; one full of sport and humor; a droll fellow. The word seems formerly to have been applied to a person who indulged in coarse, low, or broad humor, or buffoonery, as a practical joker.
  8. (n) wag
    A fellow: used with a shade of meaning sometimes slurring, sometimes affectionate, but without any attribution of humor or pleasantry.
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
  1. (v.t., v.i) Wag
    wag to move from side to side: to shake to and fro: :
  2. (pr.p) Wag
    wag′ging; pa.t. and pa.p. wagged
  3. (n) Wag
    a shaking, moving to and fro
  4. (n) Wag
    wag a droll, mischievous fellow: a man full of sport and humour: a wit: a fellow generally
  5. (v.t., v.i) Wag
    wag (coll.) to depart
  6. (v.t., v.i) Wag
    wag (Shak.) to move on, make progress
Quotations
America is a large, friendly dog in a very small room. Every time it wags its tail, it knocks over a chair.
Arnold Toynbee
H. L. Mencken
The lunatic fringe wags the underdog.
H. L. Mencken
Idioms

Wag the dog - To 'wag the dog' means to purposely divert attention from what would otherwise be of greater importance, to something else of lesser significance. By doing so, the lesser-significant event is catapulted into the limelight, drowning proper attention to what was originally the more important issue.The expression comes from the saying that 'a dog is smarter than its tail', but if the tail were smarter, then the tail would 'wag the dog'. The expression 'wag the dog' was elaborately used as theme of the movie. 'Wag the Dog', a 1997 film starring Robert de Niro and Dustin Hoffman, produced and directed by Barry Levinson.

Etymology

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary 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,. √136. See Weigh

Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary Referred by Skeat to Old Sw. wagga, to wag (Ice. vagga, a cradle); allied to A.S. wagian, to wag, Old High Ger. wagōn, to shake, A.S. wegan, to carry, move.

Usage in the news

Titans' rookie has tongues wagging , chooses not to listen. nashvillecitypaper.com

When they have negative feelings, their tail wagging is biased to the left. ohio.com

Wag- Aero receives FAA nod for Taylorcraft replacement parts. generalaviationnews.com

The US Tail Wags the Italian Dog. motortrend.com

Wagging, Gagging and Bagging . taq.com

WAG's positive results just shy of consensus. drugstorenews.com

Israel assault on Gaza, rising death tolls, Egypt's Morsi will not be wagged. ashingtonpost.com

?ne Trempe performs at the WAG on Sunday. innipegfreepress.com

Eyes light up, tongues roll out, and tails – if they had them – would wag. thenewstribune.com

TR&HC Any & All Dog Show , a tail-wagging event. tryondailybulletin.com

Friday Wine & Wag Happy Hour. baltimoremagazine.net

Bob for hot dogs and enjoy complimentary hors d'oeuvres at the Maryland SPCA's first Wine & Wag Happy Hour of the season. baltimoremagazine.net

WAG brainstorms public spaces. jamaicaplaingazette.com

FOREST HILLS—The Working Advisory Group ( WAG ) for the Casey Overpass replacement project has started brainstorming the pedestrian areas surrounding the future overpass replacement. jamaicaplaingazette.com

) and all discussion of the president's sex scandal disappears from view -- or, as Brean would have it, the "tail" of manufactured crisis wags the "dog" of national politics. motherjones.com

Usage in scientific papers

Since Aξ = 1, we have wu = wAg(ξ )(u), which implies that Ag(ξ )(u) = u.
On a free group of transformations defined by an automaton

It always leads to fine-tuning paradoxes, with the tail wagging the dog.
How Galaxies Don't Form

Most of other modes falling in the energy range of our NIS measurement are one of the twisting, stretching, breathing, bending and wagging motions of the benzene rings.
Lattice Dynamics of Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs): Neutron Inelastic Scattering and First-Principles Calculations

Wyższa natomiast powsta je poprzez sumowanie wszystkich węzłów z uwzględnieniem wag Pi , z jakimi węzły te występuj
Self-Organizing Mixture Networks for Representation of Grayscale Digital Images

Usage in literature

He'll wag as the bush wags. "The Proverbs of Scotland" by Alexander Hislop

What outrages him is to make him stop wagging his tongue. "This Simian World" by Clarence Day

Musq'oosis's head still wagged. "The Huntress" by Hulbert Footner

The boys no longer talked in whispers; their tongues were wagging loudly. "The Hero of Garside School" by J. Harwood Panting

Toto wagged his tail vigorously. "The Road to Oz" by L. Frank Baum

Culpepper wagged his head from side to side. "Privy Seal" by Ford Madox Ford

He beckoned to the little dog, and when it came up to him, wagged his finger at it. "The House with the Mezzanine and Other Stories" by Anton Tchekoff

Rover looked up and wagged his tail. "Prince and Rover of Cloverfield Farm" by Helen Fuller Orton

THE wig wag contest had furnished enough excitement at Sea Crest to constitute a nine day's wonder. "The Girl Scouts at Sea Crest" by Lillian Garis

Kaiser seemed warm in his thick coat of black hair, and wagged his tail like a good fellow. "Track's End" by Hayden Carruth

Usage in poetry
Any little English baby,
In your place, would bake:
If its head went wag as yours does,
O how it would ache!
I’ the how-dumb-deid o’ the cauld hairst nicht
The warl’ like an eemis stane
Wags i’ the lift;
An’ my eerie memories fa’
Like a yowdendrift.
Sair bent on the spinnin', she heard nae the chime
O' the wag-at-the-wa' whan ringin' the time,
At twa in the mornin'—O horror an' wae!
To think she had broken the blest Sabbath-day!
She that will but now discover
Where the winged wag doth hover,
Shall to-night receive a kiss,
How or where herself would wish:
But who brings him to his mother,
Shall have that kiss, and another.
“And all would be as it had been before;
Again at eve there would be news to tell;
Who passed should hear them chant it o’er and o’er,
Gossip, how wags the world?’ ‘Well, gossip, well.’”
Nein Freund! nein Freund, dies wag ich nicht.
Gesetzt, dass unser Schiff zerbricht,
So muessen wir ins Wasser sinken,
Und Wasser wohl gezwungen trinken.
Und Wasser, Wasser schmecket schlecht.
Hab ich nicht recht?