wag hemp en · VERB
Meanings
-
To be hanged.
In fact, the more I read the more I am persuaded that good Queen Bess's glorious days were more specious than spacious, and that Bess herself was a right mean queen. Look again at that bill. She even borrowed the ladder from which they were turned off! But I may be doing her an injustice. Perhaps she is only emphasizing her queenly preference for larceny of the grandest kind. Those who rob the Spaniards on a large scale, you remember, she knights. But these little fellows, who meddle with small shipping nearer home, she callously turns off borrowed ladders, to wag hemp in the wind.
1927 August, Leslie Hotson, “Pirates in Parchment”, in The Atlantic:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| wags hemp | Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres | lexicographic | |
| wagged hemp | Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| wagged hemp | Tense=Past | lexicographic | |
| wagging hemp | Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic |
Synonyms
dance the Tyburn jig · hang · truss · take a ride to Tyburn · stretch hemp · ride a horse foaled by an acorn · dance upon nothing · dance on nothing · trine · stretch hemp · string up · dance the hempen jig · dance on a rope · swing · wag hemp · dangle