stag

Meanings

Noun

• An adult male deer.
• A colt, or filly.
• A romping girl; a tomboy.
• An improperly or late castrated bull or ram – also called a bull seg (see note under ox).
• An outside irregular dealer in stocks, who is not a member of the exchange.
• One who applies for the allotment of shares in new projects, with a view to sell immediately at a premium, and not to hold the stock.
• An unmarried man; a bachelor; a man not accompanying a woman at a social event.
• A social event for men held in honor of a groom on the eve of his wedding, attended by male friends of the groom; sometimes a fundraiser.
• Guard duty.
• A stag beetle (family Lucanidae (family)).
• The Eurasian wren, Troglodytes troglodytes.

Verb

• To act as a "stag", an irregular dealer in stocks.
• To watch; to dog, or keep track of.

Adverb

• Of a man, attending a formal social function without a date.

Related

Similar words

• buck, hart
• bachelor party (US), stag do (UK informal), stag party, stag lunch

Narrower meaning words

• royal stag, imperial stag, monarch

Origin

• From Middle English stagge, steg, from Old English stagga, stacga and Old Norse steggi, steggr, both from Proto-Germanic *staggijô, *staggijaz, probably from Proto-Indo-European *stegʰ-, *stengʰ-. Cognate with Icelandic steggi, steggur. Related to staggard, staggon.