Word.ws English Dictionary

stag

UK/stæɡ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/staɡ/

stag noun: an adult male deer, especially a red deer and especially one in high adulthood versus a young adult.

stag: an adult male deer, especially a red deer and especially one in high adulthood versus a young adult
Image: Altaileopard ; modified by Wildfeuer, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

stag (countable and uncountable, plural stags)

  1. (countable) An adult male deer, especially a red deer and especially one in high adulthood versus a young adult.
    • The city recently carried out a deer census, determining there are 313 stags (males), 798 does (females) and 214 fawns (babies) in Nara Park.2024 July 23, Lilit Marcus, “Japan may be sick of mass tourism. But the deer in this ancient UNESCO-listed city love it”, in CNN, archived from the original on 29 Aug 2024
    Synonyms:
    buck, hart
  2. (Scotland, countable) A young horse (colt or filly).
  3. (UK) A male turkey: a turkeycock.
  4. (broadly, countable, obsolete) A romping girl; a tomboy.
  5. (countable) An improperly or late castrated bull or ram – also called a bull seg (see note under ox).
  6. (countable) An outside irregular dealer in stocks, who is not a member of the exchange.
  7. (countable) One who applies for the allotment of shares in new projects, with a view to sell immediately at a premium, and not to hold the stock.
  8. (attributive, countable, usually) An unmarried man; a bachelor; a man not accompanying a woman at a social event.
    • a stag dance; a stag party; a stag bar
  9. (countable) A social event for men held in honor of a groom on the eve of his wedding, attended by male friends of the groom; sometimes a fundraiser.
    • The stag will be held in the hotel's ballroom.
    Synonyms:
    bachelor party, stag do, stag party, stag lunch
  10. (colloquial) A man who allows his wife to have sex with other men.
    • The stag gets a thrill from watching his vixen have sex with another man.2018 June 1, Holly O'Mahony, Lollie Barr, “‘Stag’ men love watching other guys have sex with their wives… but it’s not cuckolding”, in The Sun, archived from the original on 04 Jun 2018
  11. (countable, slang) An informer.
    • We had two disturbers of the harmony of the ship; I mean two stags or informers, one named Robert Wilson, the other John Hewit, from the north of Ireland.1838, [Joseph Holt], edited by T. Crofton Croker, Memoirs of Joseph Holt, General of the Irish Rebels, in 1798, volume II, London: Henry Colburn, page 52
  12. (UK, slang, uncountable) Guard duty.
    • Between shifts on stag or manning the radio, we grabbed a few hours sleep.2000, Richard Tomlinson, The big breach: from top secret to maximum security, page 31
    • Three days were spent on standby or patrols and a fourth day on guard, with at least eight hours on stag.2012, Max Benitz, Six Months Without Sundays: The Scots Guards in Afghanistan
  13. (countable) A stag beetle (family Lucanidae).
    • Members of the genus Pasimachus […] can be confused with stag beetles […] but stags have elbowed antennae.2007, Eric R. Eaton, Kenn Kaufman, Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America, page 132
  14. (countable) The Eurasian wren, Troglodytes troglodytes.

Verb

stag (third-person singular simple present stags, present participle stagging, simple past and past participle stagged)

  1. (UK, intransitive) To act as a "stag", an irregular dealer in stocks.
  2. (transitive) To watch; to dog, or keep track of.
    Synonyms:
    shadow

Adverb

stag (not comparable)

  1. Of a man, attending a formal social function without a date.
    • My brother went stag to prom because he couldn't find a date.

stag meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

stag in Hindi

स्टैग, स्टाग

stag in Tamil

கலைமான், ஆண்மான், சில விலங்குகளின் ஆண், பெண்ணுடனன்றித் தனியாக கேளிக்கை, கூட்டங்களுக்கு வரும் ஆண்

stag in Marathi

स्टॅग

stag in Urdu

stag
گوزن gavazn
More languagesFewer languages
stag in Bengali
মৃগ mrig
stag in Telugu
స్టాగ్
stag in Malayalam
കലമാൻ, ആൺകുതിര, സ്വകാര്യ കടപ്പത്ര വ്യാപാരി
stag in Kannada
ಗಂಡು ಜಿಂಕೆ, ಕಡವೆ, ಸಾರಂಗ, ಹರಿಣ
stag in Punjabi
ਸਟੈਗ
stag in Gujarati
સ્ટેગ, સ્ટાગ
stag in Odia
ଷ୍ଟାଗ୍, ଷ୍ଟାଗ
stag in Sanskrit
ऋश्य ṛ́śya, ऋश ṛ́śa
stag in Nepali
स्ट्याग, स्टेग, स्ट्याग गर्न
stag in Tagalog
pamurulan
stag in Arabic
أَيَّل ʔayyal
stag in Persian
ستاغ setâġ

Examples of stag in a sentence

  • On his stag night, he was detrousered and left handcuffed to a lamppost.
  • We heard the distant moan of a stag in pain.
  • In the wild little grove stood a grand stag watching over his rangale.

All 31 example sentences with stag

Synonyms of stag

All synonyms of stag

Forms of stag

Noun
pluralstags
alternative Scotlandstaig
alternative form (dialectal)steg
alternative form (obsolete)stagg
alternative form (obsolete)stagge
Verb
third-person singular presentstags
present participlestagging
past participlestagged
paststagged

Plural of stag: stags

Origin of stag

From Middle English stagge, steg, from Old English stagga, stacga (“a stag”) and possibly Old Norse steggi, steggr (“a male animal”), both from Proto-Germanic *staggijô, *staggijaz (“male, male deer, porcupine”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *stegʰ-, *stengʰ- (“to sting; rod, blade; sharp, stiff”). Doublet of steg (“gander”). Cognate with Icelandic steggi, steggur (“tomcat, male fox”). Related to staggard, staggon.

Words formed from stag

Phrases with stag

Words that rhyme with stag

39 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about stag

What does stag mean?
Stag means an adult male deer, especially a red deer and especially one in high adulthood versus a young adult.
What is stag in Hindi?
Stag in Hindi is स्टैग, स्टाग. See Stag meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is stag?
Stag can be a noun, a verb or an adverb.
How do you pronounce stag?
Stag is pronounced /stæɡ/ (UK).
What is the plural of stag?
The plural of stag is stags.

Words near stag in the dictionary

  1. staffwide
  2. staffwriter
  3. staffwriters
  4. Staffy
  5. stafidopsomo
  6. stag
  7. stag beetle
  8. stag beetles
  9. stag do
  10. stag dos
  11. stag film

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stag (page history and authors); stag (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); stag (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); stag (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); گوزن (Urdu) (page history and authors); মৃগ (Bengali) (page history and authors); stag (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); stag (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); stag (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); stag (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); stag (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); stag (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ऋश (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); stag (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-stag.ogg.

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