shanghai
/ˈʃæŋ.haɪ/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.04 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To force or trick someone to go somewhere or do something against their will or interest, particularly
Transitive verb
verb
To force or trick someone to go somewhere or do something against their will or interest
Transitive verb
verb
To force or trick someone to go somewhere or do something against their will or interest
American usage; Slang; Transitive verb
verb
To force or trick someone to go somewhere or do something against their will or interest
American usage; Slang; Transitive verb
verb
To commandeer, hijack, or otherwise (usually wrongfully) appropriate a place or thing.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "1974 September 30, ‘Final Report on the Activities of the Children of God', Oftentimes the approach is to shanghai an unsuspecting victim."
- "Their power had a flaw to it. They could be shanghaied in toilets."
- "Woody: 'While I was out, I got me some sushi! Assume the position, fish boy!' / Squid Lips: 'Arr, and who are you calling "fish boy", matey? I've been shanghaied by a darn splinter!'"
- "1999 June 24, ‘The Resurrection of Tom Waits’, in Rolling Stone, quoted in Innocent When You Dream, Orion (2006), page 256, It was the strangest galley: the sounds, the steam, he's screaming at his coworkers. I felt like I'd been shanghaied."
- "Petitioner strenuously objects to this free-rider label. He argues that he is not a free rider on a bus headed for a destination that he wishes to reach but is more like a person shanghaied for an unwanted voyage."
- "By this time I hadn't much doubt of the nature of the trap and the identity of the trapping vessel. The faint smell of alcohol in the forehold told the story. I had been sandbagged and taken aboard a bootlegging craft, shanghaied in good old-fashioned style; and the vessel was probably now on its way to the Bahamas for a cargo of spirits."
Etymology
1871, from the important Chinese port Shanghai, as a verb with reference to the former practice by some shippers on the West Coast of the United States of press-ganging crews for fishing or shipping in the Pacific Ocean.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: -, 上海
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈʃæŋ.haɪ/
- British English: /ʃæŋˈhaɪ/
Usage
Inflected Forms
shanghais (present, singular)
shanghaiing (participle, present)
shanghaied (participle, past)
shanghaied (past)
shanghai'd (participle, past)
shanghai'd (past)
shanghae (alternative)
shangeye (alternative)
shanghais (plural)
Shang-hai (alternative, obsolete)
Shanghae (alternative, obsolete)
Shang-hae (alternative, obsolete)