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Nag

//ˈnæɡ// noun, verb

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A small horse; a pony.
  2. 2
    Someone or something that nags.

    "'That fellow is a nag.' 'Aye, the worst kind,' agreed Hamish, and then smiled, and at that smile, Miss Gunnery thawed even more."

  3. 3
    Misspelling of knack. alt-of, misspelling
  4. 4
    an old or over-worked horse wordnet
  5. 5
    An old, useless horse.

    "We used to lure the nags into the back of our truck with oats and sugar, then we'd drive back to town to this warehouse and inject the nags with small quantities of morphine I'd stolen."

Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    A repeated complaint or reminder.

    "And finally the biggest thank you of all to my partner Steven Winston for your love, enthusiasm, encouragement, support, humour, nags, and glasses of wine."

  2. 7
    someone (especially a woman) who annoys people by constantly finding fault wordnet
  3. 8
    A paramour. derogatory, obsolete

    "Yon ribaudred nag of Egypt – Whom leprosy o'ertake!"

  4. 9
    A persistent, bothersome thought or worry.

    "All that while there was a little nag going on at the back of his mind, which he strove to disregard. But it insisted on attention, and to get rid of it he put down his palette abruptly and got out his mustard-tin cash-box and counted his money."

Verb
  1. 1
    To repeatedly remind or complain to (someone) in an annoying way, often about insignificant or unnecessary matters. ambitransitive

    "The room is never cleaned, so her mother nags and nags until she explodes with frustration and threatens to sell her to the lowest bidder."

  2. 2
    remind or urge constantly wordnet
  3. 3
    To bother with persistent thoughts or memories.

    "The notion that he forgot something nagged him the rest of the day."

  4. 4
    bother persistently with trivial complaints wordnet
  5. 5
    To bother or disturb persistently in any way.

    "But at night, around the uncertain edge of dreams, and when the wind nags, there are few whom an odd sound will not thrill"

Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    worry persistently wordnet

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English nagg, nage, nagge (“horse, small riding horse, pony”), cognate with Dutch negge, neg (“horse”), German Nickel (“small horse”). Perhaps related to English neigh.

Etymology 2

Probably from a North Germanic source; compare Swedish nagga (“to gnaw, grumble”), Danish nage (“to nag, bother”), Icelandic nagga (“to complain”). Compare typologically fret, Bulgarian глождя (gloždja), Russian глода́ть (glodátʹ), грызть (gryztʹ), по́едом есть (pójedom jestʹ), е́дкий (jédkij).

Etymology 3

Probably from a North Germanic source; compare Swedish nagga (“to gnaw, grumble”), Danish nage (“to nag, bother”), Icelandic nagga (“to complain”). Compare typologically fret, Bulgarian глождя (gloždja), Russian глода́ть (glodátʹ), грызть (gryztʹ), по́едом есть (pójedom jestʹ), е́дкий (jédkij).

See also for "nag"

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