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Shag means “to have sex” with someone in British slang.

Shag is a much older slang term for “having sex” than you think. Evidence for the term dates back to the 1680s. It is probably related to the word shake. (Use your imagination for the connection.)

As a verb, shag means “to have sex” (e.g., I shagged her last night). By the 1780s, it evolved into a noun for the act of copulation itself (e.g., We had a shag in the barn).

Come the late 1960s, a sexually attractive person was described as a shag. This was often said of women, but also sometimes men (e.g., He was a good shag, but he’s not that bright).

Many people outside the UK learned shag thanks to the hit 1999 comedy film Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me starring Mike Myers. The title is a play on the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me (1977).

Shag—describing something rough or matted, as in carpet—has a different root than the sexual shag. It is a 16th-century word, possibly from an Old English term for “rough, matted hair or wool.”

Referring to “sex” as shagging is closely associated with British slang.

When used as a verb, shag is conjugated just like any other English verb. As noted, shag can also be a noun describing the act of copulation or referring to someone as a sexual object.

The tone of shag is dirty and definitely informal, though not quite vulgar.

This content is not meant to be a formal definition of this term. Rather, it is an informal summary that seeks to provide supplemental information and context important to know or keep in mind about the term’s history, meaning, and usage.