nag
pronunciation
How to pronounce nag in British English:
UK [næg]
How to pronounce nag in American English:
US [næɡ]
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- Noun:
- someone (especially a woman) who annoys people by constantly finding fault
- an old or over-worked horse
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- Verb:
- bother persistently with trivial complaints
- worry persistently
- remind or urge constantly
Word Origin
- nag (v.)
- "annoy by scolding," 1828, originally a dialectal word meaning "to gnaw" (1825), probably ultimately from a Scandinavian source (compare Old Norse gnaga "to complain," literally "to bite, gnaw," dialectal Swedish and Norwegian nagga "to gnaw"), from Proto-Germanic *gnagan, related to Old English gnagan "to gnaw" (see gnaw). Related: Nagged; nagger; nagging.
- nag (n.)
- "old horse," c. 1400, nagge "small riding horse," of unknown origin, perhaps related to Dutch negge, neg (but these are more recent than the English word), perhaps related in either case to imitative neigh. Term of abuse is a transferred sense, first recorded 1590s.
Example
- 1. They used these studies to market their products directly to children , encouraging them to nag their parents to buy .
- 2. Keen gamers should consider china and canada , whereas telly addicts should nag their parents to move to the united arab emirates or india .
- 3. It is a vicious circle : the naggee tires of the badgering and starts to withhold , which makes the nagger nag more .
- 4. Decoupling may thus prove temporary , while the problem of global imbalances will continue to nag away as trade friction mounts .