nag
/ˈnæɡ/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/ˈnaɡ/
nag noun: a small horse; a pony. Also the misspelling of knack.
Noun (1)
nag (plural nags)
- A small horse; a pony.
- An old, useless horse.
- We used to lure the nags into the back of our truck with oats and sugar, then we'd drive back to town to this warehouse and inject the nags with small quantities of morphine I'd stolen.2011, James Ellroy, Clandestine, →ISBN, page 245
- A paramour.
- Yon ribaudred nag of Egypt – Whom leprosy o'ertake!c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
Verb
nag (third-person singular simple present nags, present participle nagging, simple past and past participle nagged)
- To repeatedly remind or complain to (someone) in an annoying way, often about insignificant or unnecessary matters.
- The room is never cleaned, so her mother nags and nags until she explodes with frustration and threatens to sell her to the lowest bidder.2006, Jerry Day, How to Raise Kids You Want to Keep, →ISBN
- Anyone would think that I nagged at you, Amanda! (From Amanda! by Robin Klein)
- To bother with persistent thoughts or memories.
- The notion that he forgot something nagged him the rest of the day.
- I guess it happens all the time in crime stories where the detective suddenly remembers a bit of conversation that nags him in some way, then for some inexplicable reason, it's just right there in front of you, like a sign pointing 'here!2010, John David Wells, Diamonds of Affection and Other Stories, →ISBN, page 100
- Synonyms:
- haunt
- To bother or disturb persistently in any way.
- But at night, around the uncertain edge of dreams, and when the wind nags, there are few whom an odd sound will not thrill1999, Tim Parks, Adultery and Other Diversions, →ISBN
- When a breeze comes up and nags the surface, it sparkles like a gemstone.2013, Tina Egnoski, Perishables, →ISBN
- Synonyms:
- worry
Noun (2)
nag (plural nags)
- Someone or something that nags.
- 'That fellow is a nag.' 'Aye, the worst kind,' agreed Hamish, and then smiled, and at that smile, Miss Gunnery thawed even more.2011, M.C. Beaton -, Death of a Nag, →ISBN
- When we see Wolfe struggling with many depictions of woman characters throughout the novel (the earlier ones being nags and white trash), we greatly admire the development of this living tribute to Aline Bernstein, a woman whom he ends up despising in his later life.2014, Louise Hathaway, Nags, Sluts, and A Deep-Breasted Soulmate from the Shining City, →ISBN
- Synonyms:
- shrew
- A repeated complaint or reminder.
- And finally the biggest thank you of all to my partner Steven Winston for your love, enthusiasm, encouragement, support, humour, nags, and glasses of wine.2011, Mike Bryant, Peter Mabbutt, Hypnotherapy For Dummies, →ISBN
- I turned it on Eileen and threw in a couple of my normal nags about her driving.2015, Steve Brookstein, Getting Over the X, →ISBN, page 58
- A persistent, bothersome thought or worry.
- All that while there was a little nag going on at the back of his mind, which he strove to disregard. But it insisted on attention, and to get rid of it he put down his palette abruptly and got out his mustard-tin cash-box and counted his money.1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 152
- During my lengthy aerobic strolls (which more or less served as a tool of meditation), that thought about “college” became a persistent nag.2009, James Swift, How I Survived Three Years at a Two-Year Community College, →ISBN
Proper noun capitalized: NAG
NAG
- Initialism of Numeric Annotation Glyph
Also used as
nag is also the misspelling of knack.
nag meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
nag in Hindi
- नाग
nag in Marathi
- नाग, नग
nag in Urdu
- ناگ
nag in Bengali
- নাগ, নগ
More languagesFewer languages
- nag in Telugu
- నాగ్
- nag in Malayalam
- നാഗ്, നഗ്, നാഗിലേക്ക്
- nag in Kannada
- ನಾಗ್, ನಗ್
- nag in Punjabi
- ਨਗ, ਨਾਗ
- nag in Gujarati
- નાગ, નાગને
- nag in Odia
- ନାଗ
- nag in Nepali
- नाग
- nag in Persian
- پونی poni, یابو yâbu, کول kaval, نق زدن neq zadan
- nag in Thai
- จู้จี้ jûu-jîi, จุกจิก jùk-jìk, เซ้าซี้ sáo-síi
- nag in Vietnamese
- cằn nhằn, càu nhàu, ỷ eo
Examples of nag in a sentence
- a nagging pain in his left knee
- a nagging north wind
- Sometimes I write because there is a question that nags at me, sometimes because there is a question that nags at other people.2010, John Goldingay, Key Questions about Christian Faith: Old Testament Answers, →ISBN:
- But, pchA has to produce more than awareness, always-on alerts/nags, or edu-tainment.2015 -, Dwight McNeill, Using Person-Centered Health Analytics to Live Longer, →ISBN:
- There are two ways to get rid of our nags.2014, Graham Allcott, How to be a Productivity Ninja, →ISBN:
- That feeling turned into a very persistent nag.2016, Sarah Lowndes, The DIY Movement in Art, Music and Publishing, →ISBN:
Synonyms of nag
Forms of nag
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | nags |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | nags |
| present participle | nagging |
| past participle | nagged |
| past | nagged |
Origin of nag
From Middle English nagg, nage, nagge (“horse, small riding horse, pony”), cognate with Dutch negge, neg (“horse”), German Nickel (“small horse”). Perhaps related to English neigh.
Probably from a North Germanic source; compare Swedish nagga (“to gnaw, grumble”), Danish nage (“to nag, bother”), Icelandic nagga (“to complain”). Compare typologically fret, Bulgarian глождя (gloždja), Russian глода́ть (glodátʹ), грызть (gryztʹ), по́едом есть (pójedom jestʹ), е́дкий (jédkij).
Words formed from nag
Phrases with nag
Questions about nag
- What does nag mean?
- Nag means a small horse; a pony.
- What is nag in Hindi?
- Nag in Hindi is नाग. See Nag meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use nag in a sentence?
- a nagging pain in his left knee
- What part of speech is nag?
- Nag can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce nag?
- Nag is pronounced /ˈnæɡ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of nag?
- The plural of nag is nags.
Words near nag in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: nag (page history and authors); NAG (page history and authors); nag (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); nag (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); nag (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); nag (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); nag (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); nag (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); nag (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); nag (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); nag (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); nag (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); nag (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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)-Vealhurl-nag.wav.
Cite this entry: “nag.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nag. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.