shanghai
see also: Shanghai
Pronunciation
  • (RP) IPA: /ˌʃæŋˈhaɪ/
  • (GA) IPA: /ˈʃæŋ.haɪ/, /ˌʃæŋˈhaɪ/
Verb

shanghai (shanghais, present participle shanghaiing; past and past participle shanghaied)

  1. (transitive) To force or trick (someone) into joining a ship as part of the crew.
    • 1999 June 24, ‘The Resurrection of Tom Waits’, in Rolling Stone, quoted in Innocent When You Dream, Orion (2006), page 256,
      It was the strangest galley: the sounds, the steam, he's screaming at his coworkers. I felt like I'd been shanghaied.
  2. (transitive) To abduct or coerce.
  3. (transitive, US) To trick (a person) into entering a jurisdiction where they can lawfully be arrested.
  4. (transitive) To commandeer; appropriate; hijack
    Let's see if we can shanghai a room for a couple of hours.
Synonyms
  • (force or trick someone into joining a ship; abduct or coerce) press-gang
Translations Noun

shanghai (plural shanghais)

  1. (US, archaic) A tall dandy.
Noun

shanghai (plural shanghais)

  1. (AU, NZ) A slingshot.
    • 1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber and Faber 2003, p. 206:
      They scrounged around the camp […] and held out their filthy wings to the feeble sun, making themselves an easy target for Charles's shanghai.

Shanghai
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ˈʃæŋ.haɪ/, /ʃæŋˈhaɪ/
Proper noun
  1. A direct-administered municipality/major port city in eastern China, between Jiangsu and Zhejiang, comprising Shanghai proper and its suburbs.
Synonyms
  • Paris of the East
Translations Noun

shanghai (plural shanghais)

  1. A type of long-legged chicken believed to be of Asian origin.



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