wagger

wagger

English

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈwæɡə/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈwæɡəɹ/
  • Rhymes: -æɡə(ɹ)
  • Hyphenation: wag‧ger

Etymology 1

From wag +‎ -er (suffix forming agent nouns).

Noun

wagger (plural waggers)

  1. One who, or that which, wags.
    a finger-wagger    waggers of tongues
  2. A truant, notably who ditches school.
    • 1913, Norman Lindsay, “(please specify the page)”, in A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney, N.S.W.: N.S.W. Bookstall, →OCLC:
      With this mighty resolution framed and glassed, and hung over his bed, along with a pleasing representation of a gleaming eye, bearing the legend, "Thou, God, seest me," he managed by bearing himself humbly among his fellows, or rather, by having humility thrust upon him, to avert for a period such calamity as doth befall the Sunday swimmer, the fruit stealer, the school wagger, the root smoker, the Chinaman pelter, and the window smasher.
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

Ellipsis of wagger-pagger-bagger.

Noun

wagger (plural waggers)

  1. (originally Oxford University slang, now British slang, humorous, dated) Ellipsis of wagger-pagger-bagger.
Translations

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