jag
/d͡ʒæɡ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.05 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
noun
A part broken off; a fragment.
noun
A thorn from a bush (see jaggerbush).
Example Sentences
- "garments thus beset with long jagges and pursles"
- "The thick black cloud was cleft, and still / The Moon was at its side; / Like waters shot from some high crag, / The lightning fell with never a jag, / A river steep and wide."
- "The especial beauty of London is the Thames, and the Thames is so wonderful because the mist is always changing its shapes and colours, always making its light mysterious, and building palaces of cloud out of mere Parliament Houses with their jags and turrets."
- "Even if you hadn’t been drowned, you would have been smashed to pieces by the terrible weight of water against the countless jags of rock."
- "some Jaggs will ſuffice to be recited"
- "I depart as air .... I shake my white locks at the runway sun, / I effuse my flesh in eddies and drift it in lacy jags."
Etymology
The noun is from late Middle English jagge, from Old English giagga, giacga. The ultimate origin could be sound-symbolic of sudden movement, compare with jam, rag and Middle English dag, of which jag may be a palatalised variant. The verb is from jaggen, from Old English giacgian.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
- Derogatory
- Archaic
- Informal
- American usage
- Countable
- Uncountable