blag
/blæɡ/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/blaɡ/
blag noun: an armed robbery or robbery involving violence; also, theft. Also the deliberate misspelling of blog.
Noun (1)
blag (plural blags)
- An armed robbery or robbery involving violence; also, theft.
- 'What's he do, Micky?' / 'Armed blags is what I hear – s'posed to be one or two nice little tucks down to him that he didn't go for. He keeps well active. Someone told me he's putting one together now.[…]'1977, G[ordon] F[rank] Newman, chapter 4, in Law and Order, St. Albans, Hertfordshire: Granada Publishing, published 1983, →ISBN, page 40
- Through Lenny I had met a character whom I shall call Billy. He was part of a blag team famous for a series of large-scale wage snatches.1997, Stephen Smith, “Helter Skelter Years”, in Addict: An Incredible True Story with a Fairytale End, [United Kingdom]: Westworld International, →ISBN
Verb (1)
blag (third-person singular simple present blags, present participle blagging, simple past and past participle blagged)
Verb (2)
blag (third-person singular simple present blags, present participle blagging, simple past and past participle blagged)
- To obtain (something) for free, particularly by guile or persuasion.
- Can I blag a fag?
- He’s blagged his way into many a party.
- To obtain (confidential information) by impersonation or other deception; also, to deceive (someone) into disclosing confidential information.
- The newspaper is accused of blagging details of the prime minister’s flat purchase from his solicitors.
- I worked for a trace agency. The years became a blur. Your every day is spent ringing people to blag information out of them. You can do this in a nice way, but truth is, you choose the quickest.2004, Anna Maxted, chapter 2, in Being Committed, New York, N.Y.: ReganBooks, →ISBN, page 13
- To obtain (something desired), or avoid (something undesired), through improvisation or luck; to fluke, to get away with.
- ‘For the first six years I was a total chancer,’ he [Alan McGee] said. ‘I blagged it. All I did was keep choosing the right band and try not to fuck it up too much, which I usually did. […] [N]obody taught me to run a record company and I’ve made millions of mistakes.’1996, Paul Mathur, “Creation and Faith”, in Take Me There: Oasis, the Story, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, published 1997, →ISBN, page 21
- Carly (played by Vinette Robinson): Now we’ve got just about enough lamb? / Freeman: No, we haven’t got enough lamb. / Carly: We’ve got eno— – we’ve got enough. / Andy Jones (played by Stephen Graham): All right. I’m sorry, lad. What’s your fucking problem? / Freeman: What’s my problem, Andy? It’s...2021 August 23, Philip Barantini, James Cummings, 12:18 from the start, in Philip Barantini, director, Boiling Point (film), spoken by Freeman (Ray Panthaki)
- To use guile or persuasion on (someone); also, to deceive or perpetrate a hoax on (someone).
- He asks me afterwards if I realize what a lot of 'blagging' (bull) there is in his job. I reply, 'You blagging him or him blagging you?' / 'Oh no, blagging him,' he says. 'When you give him a ticket or something, you have to be nice to them.'1987, Roger Grimshaw, Tony Jefferson, “Patrol Report”, in Interpreting Policework: Policy and Practice in Forms of Beat Policing, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire: Allen & Unwin, →ISBN, part II (The...
- To meet and seduce (someone) for romantic purposes, especially in a social situation; to pick up.
- Derek Jarman had also publicly identified himself as HIV-positive, while at the same time celebrating what the mainstream press saw and criticized as a promiscuous irresponsibility in blagging trade on Hampstead Heath, an infamous (and very popular) gay cruising ground in North London.1997, Ian Lucas, “The Color of His Eyes: Polari and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence”, in Anna Livia, Kira Hall, editors, Queerly Phrased: Language, Gender, and Sexuality, New York, N.Y.; Oxford...
- To speak persuasively or with guile to obtain something.
- Some of my readers will undoubtedly call in question the veracity of what follows, and brand it with the title which is commonly called blagging still. This appellation cannot debilitate its sincerity; […]1864, Jeremiah O’Donovan, A Brief Account of the Author’s Interview with His Countrymen, and of the Parts of the Emerald Isle whence They Emigrated. […], Pittsburgh, Pa.: Published by the author...
Adjective
blag (comparative more blag, superlative most blag)
Noun (2)
blag (plural blags)
- An attempt to obtain, or the means of obtaining, something by guile or persuasion; a trick.
- A good blag to get into a nightclub is to walk in carrying a record box.
- An act of deceiving; a con, a deception, a hoax.
- Because I used to run cons with him. I came up here as a nun, but that was just a blag to make money out of the miners.2013, Janis Pegrum Smith, More than Gold, [United Kingdom]: T*P Books, Wilton End Publishing, →ISBN
- Anyone who claims to be operating on a model designed to fulfil the will of Jesus, or Allah, or Krishna, or anyone, who isn't first and foremost dedicated to the union of all humankind and service of the needy is on a massive blag.2014, Russell Brand, “Tiny Problems in Infinite Space”, in Revolution, London: Century, Random House, →ISBN, page 68
Also used as
blag is also the deliberate misspelling of blog.
Examples of blag in a sentence
- Darlin' – I know your old man's keen for you to learn the ropes an' all that, but let's not forget who's running this blag, shall we?2005, Echo Freer, chapter 1, in Diamond Geezers, London: Hodder Children’s Books, Hodder Headline, →ISBN, page 2:
- He said we could probably blag free tickets, they're desperate to paper the house.1998, Ajay Close, chapter 21, in Forspoken, London: Vintage Books, published 1999, →ISBN, page 258:
- A couple of others [websites] are hosted by U-Net (www.vianetworks.co.uk), which provided free space because I'm an unprincipled journo and I blagged it.2004 January, Huw Collingbourne, “Rants and Raves: The Host with the Most”, in PC Plus, number 211, Bath, Somerset: Future plc, →ISSN...
- He later recalled that blagging a cab ride to Warrington Dallam shed on Stanier '8F' 48531 was a life-changing experience.2023 January 25, Howard Johnston, “Peter Kelly: August 2 1944 – December 28 2022”, in Rail, number 975, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer...
Synonyms of blag
Forms of blag
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | blags |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | blags |
| present participle | blagging |
| past participle | blagged |
| past | blagged |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more blag |
| superlative | most blag |
Origin of blag
The origin of the noun is unknown. The verb is derived from the noun.
The origin of the verb is uncertain; it is possibly: * from blag (“to rob; to steal”) (see etymology 1); or * borrowed from French blaguer (“to joke (about); to tell a lie”), from blague (“pouch, especially for tobacco; joke (from the notion of something puffed up, and thus fanciful)”) (from Dutch balg (“leather bag”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵʰ- (“to swell”)) + -er (suffix forming infinitives of first-conjugation verbs). The adjective and noun are probably derived from the verb.
Coined by the American author, cartoonist, and engineer Randall Munroe (born 1984) in his webcomic xkcd in 2006: see the quotation.
Words formed from blag
Words that rhyme with blag
Questions about blag
- What does blag mean?
- Blag means an armed robbery or robbery involving violence; also, theft.
- How do you use blag in a sentence?
- Darlin' – I know your old man's keen for you to learn the ropes an' all that, but let's not forget who's running this blag, shall we?
- What part of speech is blag?
- Blag can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce blag?
- Blag is pronounced /blæɡ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of blag?
- The plural of blag is blags.
Words near blag in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: blag (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-NaomiAmethyst-blag.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-blag.wav.
Cite this entry: “blag.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/blag. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.