Word.ws English Dictionary

wag-wanton

wag-wanton noun: quaking grass: any of a genus, Briza, of grasses.

Noun (1)

wag-wanton (countable and uncountable, plural wag-wantons)

  1. (UK, obsolete, regional) quaking grass: any of a genus, Briza, of grasses
    Synonyms:
    wagwant

Noun (2)

wag-wanton (plural wag-wantons)

  1. (UK, obsolete, regional) a sexually promiscuous person

Adjective

wag-wanton (comparative more wag-wanton, superlative most wag-wanton)

  1. (UK, obsolete, regional) Synonym of wanton.
    • No man durst scarce this wag-wanton touch.c. 1568-1574, L. Barber, editor, Misogonus, Routledge, published 2019, →ISBN, page 94
    Synonyms:
    wanton

Adverb

wag-wanton (comparative more wag-wanton, superlative most wag-wanton)

  1. (UK, obsolete, regional) rowdily (in a manner lacking order)
    • [T]hen euery little childe that playeth wag-wanton[…]1601, J. Deacon and J. Walker, Summarie Answere to Darel, page 72
    Synonyms:
    rowdily
  2. (UK, obsolete, regional) promiscuously (indiscriminately or wantonly choosing one's sexual partners)
    • Well hit, but, to the fourth now: Wagge-wanton with his mistresse.1604, N. Breton, Grimellos fortunes

Synonyms of wag-wanton

Forms of wag-wanton

Noun
pluralwag-wantons
alternative formwagge-wanton
Adjective
comparativemore wag-wanton
superlativemost wag-wanton
Adverb
comparativemore wag-wanton
superlativemost wag-wanton

Origin of wag-wanton

Compound of wag + wanton, referring to the shaking of Briza flowers in the breeze.

Formed independently as a compound from the etymology above, with wanton being used in the sense of sexual promiscuity. First attested in 1601.

Questions about wag-wanton

What does wag-wanton mean?
Wag-wanton means quaking grass: any of a genus, Briza, of grasses.
What part of speech is wag-wanton?
Wag-wanton can be a noun, an adjective or an adverb.
What is the plural of wag-wanton?
The plural of wag-wanton is wag-wantons.

Words near wag-wanton in the dictionary

  1. wag-on-the-wall
  2. wag-pastie
  3. wag-pasties
  4. wag-pasty
  5. wag-tail dance
  6. wag-wanton
  7. wag-wantons
  8. wag1
  9. wagadash
  10. wagadashes
  11. Wagadugu

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wag-wanton (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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