Wag \Wag\, v. i. 1. To move one way and the other; to be shaken to and fro; to vibrate.
The resty sieve wagged ne'er the more. --Dryden.
2. To be in action or motion; to move; to get along; to progress; to stir. [Colloq.]
``Thus we may see,'' quoth he, ``how the world wags.'' --Shak.
3. To go; to depart; to pack oft. [R.]
I will provoke him to 't, or let him wag. --Shak.
Wag \Wag\, n. [From {Wag}, v.] 1. The act of wagging; a shake; as, a wag of the head. [Colloq.]
2. [Perhaps shortened from wag-halter a rogue.] A man full of sport and humor; a ludicrous fellow; a humorist; a wit; a joker.
We wink at wags when they offend. --Dryden.
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. --Addison.
Wag \Wag\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Wagged}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Wagging}.] [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. [root]136. See {Weigh}.] 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.
No discerner durst wag his tongue in censure. --Shak.
Every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head. --Jer. xviii. 16.
Note: Wag expresses specifically the motion of the head and body used in buffoonery, mirth, derision, sport, and mockery.
But it may be some time before Jefferies stops hearing the kind of joke one Wall Street wag offered Friday: "Jefferies's motto is: Why buy a stock when you can rent it."
THE CHECKOFF: "I never thought I'd see a Stalinist regime, dominant for decades, be toppled by democratic reformists," muses one wag.
Executive officials and judges have suffered being on the end of the congressional tail that didn't wag.
One wag close to events decribed it as 'one of the world's least successful missions'.
The book is an extended one-woman chin wag about the propriety of deception in reporting.
Maybe we should have seen a little more of the scholarly tail, which certainly does not wag the dog.