Dictionary

shanghai en · NOUN · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• /ˈʃæŋ.haɪ/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈʃæŋ.haɪ/ (General-American)
• (US) audio
• (Southern-England) audio
• /ʃɑŋˈhaɪ/ (General-American)
• /ʃæŋˈhaɪ/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /ʃæŋˈhaɪ/ (General-American)
• (Australia) audio

Etymology

1871, from the important Chinese port Shanghai, as a verb with reference to the former practice by some shippers on the West Coast of the United States of press-ganging crews for fishing or shipping in the Pacific Ocean.

Meanings

1. (capitalized, dated, often) A breed of chicken with large bodies, long legs, and feathered shanks.
   • Cochins or Shanghaes. 1853, W.B. Tegetmeier, Profitable Poultry, page 19:
2. (US, obsolete) A kind of daub.
   • The ‘shanghai’ is the glaring daub required by some frame-makers for cheap auctions. They are turned out at so much by the day's labor, or at from $12 to $24 a dozen, by the piece. 1880 Jan., Scribner's Monthly, p. 365
3. (US, obsolete) A tall dandy.
4. (capitalized, often) A kind of dart game in which players are gradually eliminated ("shanghaied"), usually either by failing to reach a certain score in 3 quick throws or during a competition to hit a certain prechosen number and then be the first to hit the prechosen numbers of the other players.
   • ‘Shanghai’ may be played by teams of 8, in pairs, individually, or, in fact, any number. 1930, Anchor Magazine, page 196:
   • The hot twenty—including local favourites George Simmons, Tony Brown, Mick Norris and Lew Walker—have to sweat through nineteen 501s, one 1,001, one 2,001, one round-the-board-on-doubles, one shanghai and one halve-it. 1977 May 10, Daily Mirror, p. 30

Forms

shanghai en · VERB · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• /ˈʃæŋ.haɪ/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈʃæŋ.haɪ/ (General-American)
• (US) audio
• (Southern-England) audio
• /ʃɑŋˈhaɪ/ (General-American)
• /ʃæŋˈhaɪ/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /ʃæŋˈhaɪ/ (General-American)
• (Australia) audio

Etymology

1871, from the important Chinese port Shanghai, as a verb with reference to the former practice by some shippers on the West Coast of the United States of press-ganging crews for fishing or shipping in the Pacific Ocean.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To force or trick someone to go somewhere or do something against their will or interest, particularly
   • Petitioner strenuously objects to this free-rider label. He argues that he is not a free rider on a bus headed for a destination that he wishes to reach but is more like a person shanghaied for an unwanted voyage. 2018 Janus v. AFSCME, Council 31, 138 S. Ct. 2448
   • Their power had a flaw to it. They could be shanghaied in toilets. 1985, Margaret Atwood, “Birth Day”, in The Handmaid’s Tale, Toronto, Ont.: McClelland and Stewart, →ISBN, page 143:
   • 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.
   • Woody: 'While I was out, I got me some sushi! Assume the position, fish boy!' / Squid Lips: 'Arr, and who are you calling "fish boy", matey? I've been shanghaied by a darn splinter!' 1995, Sega Multimedia Studio, Wild Woody, Sega:
   • 1974 September 30, ‘Final Report on the Activities of the Children of God', Oftentimes the approach is to shanghai an unsuspecting victim.
2. (transitive) To force or trick someone to go somewhere or do something against their will or interest ▸ To press-gang sailors, especially (historical) for shipping or fishing work.
   • By this time I hadn't much doubt of the nature of the trap and the identity of the trapping vessel. The faint smell of alcohol in the forehold told the story. I had been sandbagged and taken aboard a bootlegging craft, shanghaied in good old-fashioned style; and the vessel was probably now on its way to the Bahamas for a cargo of spirits. 1923, Francis Lynde, chapter 2, in Somewhere in the Caribbean:
   • Peter Edwards was bragging all around the little port about his boy, shanghaied off to sea on his first voyage and coming home skipper of a bung-full spouter. 1930, Captain Dingle, “In Conclusion” (chapter 34), in Seaworthy, Cambridge, Mass.: The Riverside Press, page 270:
3. (US, slang, transitive) To force or trick someone to go somewhere or do something against their will or interest ▸ To trick a suspect into entering a jurisdiction in which they can be lawfully arrested.
4. (US, slang, transitive) To force or trick someone to go somewhere or do something against their will or interest ▸ To transfer a serviceman against their will.
   • There was a urologist for his urine, a lymphologist for his lymph, an endocrinologist for his endocrines, a psychologist for his psyche, a dermatologist for his derma; there was a pathologist for his pathos, a cystologist for his cysts, and a bald and pedantic cetologist from the zoology department at Harvard who had been shanghaied ruthlessly into the Medical Corps by a faulty anode in an I.B.M. machine and spent his sessions with the dying colonel trying to discuss Moby Dick with him. Joseph Heller, Catch-22
   • “Why, if you so loved and cherished the armed guard,” Captain Banning continued, “did you arrange for transfer?” “I never, sir! ... But he shanghaied me out of the armed guard pronto.” Eugene Cunningham, "A One-Man Navy"
5. (transitive) To commandeer, hijack, or otherwise (usually wrongfully) appropriate a place or thing.
   • Let's see if we can shanghai a room for a couple of hours.

Forms

Deriveds

shanghaier

Translations (12)

hu elrabol (to force or trick into work, especially joining a ship) · nl sjanghaaien (to force or trick into work, especially joining a ship) · es emborrachar (to force or trick into work, especially joining a ship) · da shanghaje (to force or trick into work, especially joining a ship) · fr shangaïer (to force or trick into work, especially joining a ship) · fi shanghaijata (to force or trick into work, especially joining a ship) · sv sjanghaja (to force or trick into work, especially joining a ship) · cmn 強迫 /强迫 (to force or trick into work, especially joining a ship) · de schanghaien (to force or trick into work, especially joining a ship) · cmn 誘騙 /诱骗 (to force or trick into work, especially joining a ship) · it arruolare a forza (to force or trick into work, especially joining a ship) · ga shanghai-áil (to force or trick into work, especially joining a ship)

shanghai en · NOUN · etymology 2

Pronunciation

• /ˈʃæŋ.haɪ/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈʃæŋ.haɪ/ (General-American)
• (US) audio
• (Southern-England) audio
• /ʃɑŋˈhaɪ/ (General-American)
• /ʃæŋˈhaɪ/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /ʃæŋˈhaɪ/ (General-American)
• (Australia) audio

Etymology

From Scottish shangan, from Scottish Gaelic seangan, influenced by the Chinese city.

Meanings

1. (Australia, New-Zealand) Synonym of slingshot.
   • However, certain objects are excluded from being treated as a gun. These include a longbow, crossbow, slingshot or shanghai even though it is capable of propelling a projectile by means of an explosive force. 2020, Parliament of Singapore, “Guns, Explosives and Weapons Control Bill”, in Republic of Singapore Government Gazette, page 161:
   • Turn, turn thy shang~hay dread aside, Nor touch that little bird 1863 Oct. 24, Leader, p. 17
   • ‘Terry Madison. Instead of fiddling with that shanghai, give us a thought.’ ‘It’s a gongai,’ Swiftie said. ‘I mean that’s the name for a shanghai which is another name for a catapult...that Mr Delarue calls a slingshot.’ 1982, Paul Radley, My Blue-Checker Corker and Me, Sydney: Fontana/Collins, page 61:
   • They scrounged around the camp […] and held out their filthy wings to the feeble sun, making themselves an easy target for Charles's shanghai. 1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber and Faber, published 2003, page 206:

Forms

Synonyms

slingshot

shanghai en · VERB · etymology 2

Pronunciation

• /ˈʃæŋ.haɪ/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈʃæŋ.haɪ/ (General-American)
• (US) audio
• (Southern-England) audio
• /ʃɑŋˈhaɪ/ (General-American)
• /ʃæŋˈhaɪ/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /ʃæŋˈhaɪ/ (General-American)
• (Australia) audio

Etymology

From Scottish shangan, from Scottish Gaelic seangan, influenced by the Chinese city.

Meanings

1. (Australia, New-Zealand) To hit with a slingshot.

Forms