Stag

//stæɡ// adv, noun, verb, slang

adv, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An adult male deer, especially a red deer and especially one in high adulthood versus a young adult. countable

    "The city recently carried out a deer census, determining there are 313 stags (males), 798 does (females) and 214 fawns (babies) in Nara Park."

  2. 2
    adult male deer wordnet
  3. 3
    A young horse (colt or filly). Scotland, countable
  4. 4
    a male deer, especially an adult male red deer wordnet
  5. 5
    A male turkey: a turkeycock. British, countable, uncountable
Show 10 more definitions
  1. 6
    A romping girl; a tomboy. broadly, countable, obsolete
  2. 7
    An improperly or late castrated bull or ram – also called a bull seg (see note under ox). countable
  3. 8
    An outside irregular dealer in stocks, who is not a member of the exchange. countable
  4. 9
    One who applies for the allotment of shares in new projects, with a view to sell immediately at a premium, and not to hold the stock. countable
  5. 10
    An unmarried man; a bachelor; a man not accompanying a woman at a social event. attributive, countable, usually

    "a stag dance; a stag party; a stag bar"

  6. 11
    A social event for men held in honor of a groom on the eve of his wedding, attended by male friends of the groom; sometimes a fundraiser. countable

    "The stag will be held in the hotel's ballroom."

  7. 12
    An informer. countable, slang

    "We had two disturbers of the harmony of the ship; I mean two stags or informers, one named Robert Wilson, the other John Hewit, from the north of Ireland."

  8. 13
    Guard duty. UK, slang, uncountable

    "Between shifts on stag or manning the radio, we grabbed a few hours sleep."

  9. 14
    A stag beetle (family Lucanidae). countable

    "Members of the genus Pasimachus […] can be confused with stag beetles […] but stags have elbowed antennae."

  10. 15
    The Eurasian wren, Troglodytes troglodytes. countable
Verb
  1. 1
    To act as a "stag", an irregular dealer in stocks. British, intransitive
  2. 2
    watch, observe, or inquire secretly wordnet
  3. 3
    To watch; to dog, or keep track of. transitive
  4. 4
    give away information about somebody wordnet
  5. 5
    attend a dance or a party without a female companion wordnet
Adverb
  1. 1
    Of a man, attending a formal social function without a date. not-comparable

    "My brother went stag to prom because he couldn't find a date."

Synonyms

All synonyms
harthartadventurerantelopebachelor partybachelor party

Example

More examples

"He drew a bead on a stag at bay."

Etymology

From Middle English stagge, steg, from Old English stagga, stacga (“a stag”) and Old Norse steggi, steggr (“a male animal”), both from Proto-Germanic *staggijô, *staggijaz (“male, male deer, porcupine”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *stegʰ-, *stengʰ- (“to sting; rod, blade; sharp, stiff”). Cognate with Icelandic steggi, steggur (“tomcat, male fox”). Related to staggard, staggon.

Related phrases

Kashmir stagbaby stagbull stagfag staghog stagstag beetlestag dostag filmstag hogstag moosestag nightstag party

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.