shanghai

Meanings

Verb

• To force or trick someone to go somewhere or do something against their will or interest, particularly
• To commandeer, hijack, or otherwise (usually wrongfully) appropriate a place or thing.
• To hit with a slingshot.

Noun

• A breed of chicken with large bodies, long legs, and feathered shanks.
• A kind of daub.
• A tall dandy.
• 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.
• Synonym of slingshot.

Origin

• From the important Chinese port Shanghai (q.v.), 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.
• From Scottish shangan, from Scottish Gaelic seangan, influenced by the Chinese city.