Word.ws English Dictionary

shanks' nag

shanks' nag noun: transportation by foot. To "take a shanks' nag" means using one's own legs to walk.

Noun

shanks' nag (plural shanks' nags)

  1. (Scotland, archaic, idiomatic) Transportation by foot. To "take a shanks' nag" means using one's own legs to walk.
    • He took shanks-naig, but fient may care.1774, Robert Fergusson, Poems on Various Subjects

Forms of shanks' nag

pluralshanks' nags

Origin of shanks' nag

Traced back to shanks-nag, 1758; The expression -- believed to be Scottish in origin (i.e. shanks-naig 1774), refers to the use of shank to refer to the part of the human leg between the knee and ankle.

Words formed from shanks' nag

Questions about shanks' nag

What does shanks' nag mean?
Shanks' nag means transportation by foot. To "take a shanks' nag" means using one's own legs to walk.
What part of speech is shanks' nag?
Shanks' nag is a noun.
What is the plural of shanks' nag?
The plural of shanks' nag is shanks' nags.

Words near shanks' nag in the dictionary

  1. shanks it
  2. shanks mare
  3. shanks pony
  4. shanks' mare
  5. shanks' mares
  6. shanks' nag
  7. shanks' nags
  8. shanks' pony
  9. shanks's mare
  10. shanks's pony
  11. Shanksville

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shanks' nag (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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