Word.ws English Dictionary

wagger-pagger-bagger

Syllables: wag·ger-pag·ger-bag·gerUK/ˌwæɡə ˌpæɡə ˈbæɡə//ˌwæɡəɹ ˌpæɡəɹ ˈbæɡəɹ/

wagger-pagger-bagger noun: a wastepaper basket.

wagger-pagger-bagger: a wastepaper basket
Image: RyGuy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

wagger-pagger-bagger (plural wagger-pagger-baggers)

  1. (British, dated, humorous, slang) A wastepaper basket.
    • When young Oxford suddenly began to substitute "er" for the ordinary termination of a word, it was not making slang so much as diversifying and idiotising conversation. Thus a bedmaker was transformed to a "bedder," breakfast to "brekker," and the waste-paper basket, by a desperate effort, became...[1916, E[dward] V[errall] Lucas, “Of Slang—English and American”, in Cloud and Silver, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC, page 96
    • Waste-paper baskets – (I remember certain earnest youths at Oxford who used to call them wagger-pagger-baggers) – are to Philip Guedalla one of the most essential perquisites of the man of letters.[1927 September, Beverley Nichols, “Philip Guedalla, or The Importance of Waste-paper Baskets”, in Are They the Same at Home? Being a Series of Bouquets Diffidently Distributed […], New York, N.Y....

Examples of wagger-pagger-bagger in a sentence

  • (He takes the flowers from the vase.) If you don't mind, therefore, I shall deposit them in the wagger-pagger-bagger. (He drops the flowers into the waste-paper basket.)1947 (date written), John Dighton, The Happiest Days of Your Life: A Farce in Three Acts, London: Samuel French, published 1951, →OCLC, Act...
  • He was a master of the lampoon, a wagger-pagger-bagger need never be a waste paper basket again.2009, Peter [J. M.] McEwan, “Early Days”, in To Catch the Moon from the Bottom of the Sea: A Memoir, Ballater, Aberdeenshire: Glengarden...

Synonyms of wagger-pagger-bagger

Forms of wagger-pagger-bagger

pluralwagger-pagger-baggers

Origin of wagger-pagger-bagger

From wastepaper basket, humorously modified by adding -agger to the first letters of waste, paper, and basket; compare -er (suffix forming informal or slang equivalents of words).

Words formed from wagger-pagger-bagger

Words that rhyme with wagger-pagger-bagger

9 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about wagger-pagger-bagger

What does wagger-pagger-bagger mean?
Wagger-pagger-bagger means a wastepaper basket.
How do you use wagger-pagger-bagger in a sentence?
(He takes the flowers from the vase.) If you don't mind, therefore, I shall deposit them in the wagger-pagger-bagger. (He drops the flowers into the waste-paper basket.)
What part of speech is wagger-pagger-bagger?
Wagger-pagger-bagger is a noun.
How do you pronounce wagger-pagger-bagger?
Wagger-pagger-bagger is pronounced /ˌwæɡə ˌpæɡə ˈbæɡə/ (UK).
What is the plural of wagger-pagger-bagger?
The plural of wagger-pagger-bagger is wagger-pagger-baggers.

Words near wagger-pagger-bagger in the dictionary

  1. waggels
  2. Waggener
  3. Waggeners
  4. wagger
  5. wagger-pagger
  6. wagger-pagger-bagger
  7. wagger-pagger-baggers
  8. waggeries
  9. waggers
  10. waggery
  11. wagges

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wagger-pagger-bagger (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-wagger-pagger-bagger.wav, En-au-wagger-pagger-bagger.ogg.

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