Also 6 wagg(e. [f. WAG v.]
1. An act of wagging (the tail, hand, tongue, etc.).
1589. Lodge, Scilla’s Met., B j. When first with [printed which] fingers wagge he gan to still them.
1599. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Rev., V. iv. Amo. You become the simper, well, ladie. Mer. And the wag, better.
1823. Scott, Quentin D., Introd. There was … more … sympathy in the wag of old Trusty’s tail, than if [etc.].
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xi. With … a scarcely perceptible wag of his head.
1870. E. H. Pember, Trag. Lesbos, iii. 68–9.
| One wag of thy fool’s tongue at her or me, | |
| And by the head of Hecate, thou diest! |
1885. R. Buchanan, Annan Water, viii. But recognising her, he gave a faint wag of the tail and sank down again to doze.
1891. Field, 28 Nov., 835/1. The most silent of us are apt to let our tongues wag, or to listen complacently to the wag of others.
b. Power or disposition to wag.
1851. D. Jerrold, St. Giles, xiii. 127. The old house-dog crawled towards him, with no wag in his tail.
1881. Century Mag., XXIII. 932/2. The people … stroked, almost tenderly, his [the dead burro’s] long ears, out of which the wag had gone forever.
† 2. To hold (a person) wag: to keep at bay, defy. Obs.
c. 1540. J. Heywood, Wit & Folly (Percy Soc.), 12. I say, nay!—and wyll so envey, That I wyll hold ye wagg a nother way.
1606. Warner, Alb. Eng., XVI. cvii. 415. But who against that Ages Mars first Edward might hold out? Yet twice this Lewlin held him wag.
