Word.ws English Dictionary

egg on

egg on verb: to encourage or coax (a person) to do something, especially something foolhardy or reckless.

Verb

egg on (third-person singular simple present eggs on, present participle egging on, simple past and past participle egged on)

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To encourage or coax (a person) to do something, especially something foolhardy or reckless.
    • The Neatreſſe longing for the reſt, did egge him on to tell / How faire ſhe vvas, and vvho ſhe vvas.1586, William Warner, “The Fourth Booke. Chapter XX.”, in Albions England. Or Historicall Map of the Same Island: […], London: […] George Robinson [and R. Ward] for Thomas Cadman, […], →OCLC, page 86
    • The affair made a great sensation, and the Darleyfords and their connections said bitter things of Mrs. Dallington, and talked much of rash youth and subtle woman of discreeter years, and passions shamefully inflamed, and purposes wickedly egged on.1831, [Benjamin Disraeli], chapter V, in The Young Duke. […], volume II (book III), London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 59
    Synonyms:
    provoke

egg on meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Persian and Myanmar

egg on in Tamil

சுரமேற்று

egg on in Bengali

কাউকে কোনো কিছু করতে

egg on in Persian

to encourage or coax (a person) to do something
تحریک کردن tahrik kardan

egg on in Myanmar

to encourage or coax (a person) to do something
ညှော် hnyau

Synonyms of egg on

Forms of egg on

third-person singular presenteggs on
present participleegging on
past participleegged on
pastegged on

Origin of egg on

* From Middle English eggen (“to incite; urge on; instigate”), from Old Norse eggja (“to incite”), from egg (“edge”). More at edge. * A variant of the archaic "edge on."

Words formed from egg on

Questions about egg on

What does egg on mean?
Egg on means to encourage or coax (a person) to do something, especially something foolhardy or reckless.
What is egg on in Tamil?
Egg on in Tamil is சுரமேற்று. See Egg on meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is egg on?
Egg on is a verb.
What is the past tense of egg on?
The past tense of egg on is egged on.

Words near egg on in the dictionary

  1. egg nog
  2. egg nogs
  3. egg noodle
  4. egg noodles
  5. egg of Columbus
  6. egg on
  7. egg on horseback
  8. egg on one's face
  9. egg pasta
  10. egg pastas
  11. egg pod

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: egg on (page history and authors); egg on (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); egg on (Bengali Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-egg on.ogg.

Cite this entry: “egg on.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/egg_on. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.