hag

• POS: Noun

CIDE DICTIONARY

hag, n. [OE. hagge, hegge, witch, hag, AS. hægtesse; akin to OHG. hagazussa, G. hexe, D. heks, Dan. hex, Sw. häxa. The first part of the word is prob. the same as E. haw, hedge, and the orig. meaning was perh., wood woman, wild woman.

•  A witch, sorceress, or enchantress; also, a wizard.  Golding.  [1913 Webster]
•  An ugly old woman.  Dryden.  [1913 Webster]
•  A fury; a she-monster.  Crashaw.  [1913 Webster]
•  An eel-like marine marsipobranch (Myxine glutinosa), allied to the lamprey. It has a suctorial mouth, with labial appendages, and a single pair of gill openings. It is the type of the order Hyperotreta. Called also hagfish, borer, slime eel, sucker, and sleepmarken.  [1913 Webster]
•  The hagdon or shearwater.  [1913 Webster]
•  An appearance of light and fire on a horse's mane or a man's hair.  Blount.  [1913 Webster]

Hag moth (Zoöl.), a moth (Phobetron pithecium), the larva of which has curious side appendages, and feeds on fruit trees. -- Hag's tooth (Naut.), an ugly irregularity in the pattern of matting or pointing.

hag, v. t. 

 To harass; to weary with vexation.  [1913 Webster]
"How are superstitious men hagged out of their wits with the fancy of omens."  [1913 Webster]

hag, n. [Scot. hag to cut; cf. E. hack.].

•  A small wood, or part of a wood or copse, which is marked off or inclosed for felling, or which has been felled.  [1913 Webster]

  "This said, he led me over hoults and hags;
  Through thorns and bushes scant my legs I drew."  [1913 Webster]
•  A quagmire; mossy ground where peat or turf has been cut.  Dugdale.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

hag, n.
1 an ugly old woman.
2 a witch.
3 = HAGFISH.

Derivative

haggish adj.

hag, n. Sc. & N.Engl.
1 a soft place on a moor.
2 a firm place in a bog.

Etymology

ON h{ouml}gg gap, orig. 'cutting blow', rel. to HEW

DEVIL DICTIONARY

hag

n. An elderly lady whom you do not happen to like; sometimes called, also, a hen, or cat. Old witches, sorceresses, etc., were called hags from the belief that their heads were surrounded by a kind of baleful lumination or nimbus -- hag being the popular name of that peculiar electrical light sometimes observed in the hair. At one time hag was not a word of reproach: Drayton speaks of a "beautiful hag, all smiles," much as Shakespeare said, "sweet wench." It would not now be proper to call your sweetheart a hag -- that compliment is reserved for the use of her grandchildren.

THESAURUS

hag

Jezebel, Weird Sisters, baboon, bag, bat, battle-ax, beldam, biddy, bitch-kitty, blemish, blot, coven, crone, dame, dog, dowager, drab, enchantress, eyesore, fishwife, fright, frump, fury, gammer, gargoyle, gorgon, grandam, grandmother, granny, grimalkin, harpy, harridan, hellcat, hellhag, hex, lamia, mess, monster, monstrosity, no beauty, old battle-ax, old dame, old girl, old granny, old lady, old trot, old wife, old woman, scarecrow, shamaness, she-devil, she-wolf, shrew, sight, siren, slattern, sorceress, teratism, termagant, tigress, trot, ugly duckling, virago, vixen, war-horse, wildcat, witch, witchwife, witchwoman

ROGET THESAURUS

hag

Ugliness

N ugliness, deformity, inelegance, acomia, disfigurement, want of symmetry, inconcinnity, distortion, squalor, forbidding countenance, vinegar aspect, hanging look, wry face, spretae injuria formae, eyesore, object, witch, hag, figure, sight, fright, monster, dog, woofer, pig, octopus, specter, scarecrow, harridan, satyr, toad, monkey, baboon, Caliban, Aesop, monstrum horrendum informe ingens cui lumen adempt, ugly, ugly as sin, ugly as a toad, ugly as a scarecrow, ugly as a dead monkey, plain, bald (unadorned), homely, ordinary, unornamental, inartistic, unsightly, unseemly, uncomely, unlovely, unshapely, sightless, seemless, not fit to be seen, unbeauteous, unbeautiful, beautiless, semibeautiful, shapeless, misshapen, misproportioned, monstrous, gaunt, dumpy, curtailed of its fair proportions, ill-made, ill- shaped, ill-proportioned, crooked, hard featured, hard visaged, ill-favored, hard-favored, evil-favored, ill-looking, unprepossessing, unattractive, uninviting, unpleasing, graceless, inelegant, ungraceful, ungainly, uncouth, stiff, rugged, rough, gross, rude, awkward, clumsy, slouching, rickety, gawky, lumping, lumpish, lumbering, hulky, hulking, unwieldy, squalid, haggard, grim, grim faced, grim visaged, grisly, ghastly, ghost like, death like, cadaverous, grewsome, gruesome, frightful, hideous, odious, uncanny, forbidding, repellant, repulsive, repugnant, grotesque, bizarre, grody, grody to the max, horrid, horrible, shocking, foul, dingy, gaudy, disfigured, discolored.

Sorcerer

N sorcerer, magician, thaumaturgist, theurgist, conjuror, necromancer, seer, wizard, witch, hoodoo, voodoo, fairy, lamia, hag, warlock, charmer, exorcist, mage, cunning man, medicine man, Shaman, figure flinger, ecstatica, medium, clairvoyant, fortune teller, mesmerist, deus ex machina, soothsayer, Katerfelto, Cagliostro, Mesmer, Rosicrucian, Circe, siren, weird sisters.

Evil doer

N evil doer, evil worker, wrongdoer, mischief-maker, marplot, oppressor, tyrant, destroyer, Vandal, iconoclast, firebrand, incendiary, fire bug, pyromaniac, anarchist, communist, terrorist, savage, brute, ruffian, barbarian, semibarbarian, caitiff, desperado, Apache, hoodlum, hood, plug-ugly, Red Skin, tough, Mohawk, Mo-hock, Mo-hawk, bludgeon man, bully, rough, hooligan, larrikin, dangerous classes, ugly customer, thief, cockatrice, scorpion, hornet, snake, viper, adder, snake in the grass, serpent, cobra, asp, rattlesnake, anaconda, canker-worm, wire-worm, locust, Colorado beetle, alacran, alligator, caymon, crocodile, mosquito, mugger, octopus, torpedo, bane, cutthroat, cannibal, anthropophagus, anthropophagist, bloodsucker, vampire, ogre, ghoul, gorilla, vulture, gyrfalcon, gerfalcon, wild beast, tiger, hyena, butcher, hangman, blood-hound, hell- hound, sleuth-hound, catamount, cougar, jaguar, puma, hag, hellhag, beldam, Jezebel, monster, fiend, devil incarnate, demon in human shape, Frankenstein's monster, harpy, siren, Furies, Eumenides, Hun, Attila, scourge of the human race, faenum habet in cornu.

For further exploring for "hag" in Webster Dictionary Online