hag

1 of 3

noun (1)

1
: an ugly, slatternly, or evil-looking old woman
2
archaic
a
: a female demon
b
: an evil or frightening spirit : hobgoblin
3
: witch
haggish adjective

hag

2 of 3

noun (2)

1
British : quagmire, bog
2
British : a firm spot in a bog

Hag

3 of 3

abbreviation

Haggai

Examples of hag in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
The Furies of ancient Greece and Rome were also divine, a trio of miserable hags with snakes for hair. Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker, 5 Feb. 2024 Disguising herself as an old hag, the queen poisons her with an apple, ... Madeleine Kearns, National Review, 30 July 2023 The perpetually unsatisfied title character, a demanding New York art critic played by Tilda Swinton as a hag with hair the color of hibiscus tea, is obsessed with archiving the life’s work of her late husband (RZA), who left behind a series of egg paintings no one seems to understand. Peter Debruge, Variety, 14 Mar. 2023 All at once a seductress and a hag; a cunning shapeshifter and a gullible fool tricked into the service of the devil. Kate Wheeling, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 Oct. 2022 And one project seems to have cracked the hag's curse. Stratton Lawrence, Travel + Leisure, 26 Feb. 2021 Yet as lockdown dragged on, the dream job fell victim to a hiring freeze, the wedding was canceled, and my hair crossed the fine line from seductive professor to sea hag. Lacy Warner, Vogue, 21 Jan. 2021 This mixup is almost always accompanied by a sensation of entrapment, floating, or detachment from one’s body—and in many cases sleepers see an accompanying demon or hag. Jake Bittle, Popular Science, 6 Oct. 2020

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hag.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun (1)

Middle English hagge demon, old woman

Noun (2)

Scots, break in a moor, from Old Norse hǫgg cut, cleft; akin to Old English hēawan to hew

First Known Use

Noun (1)

13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 3

Noun (2)

1662, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of hag was in the 13th century

Dictionary Entries Near hag

Cite this Entry

“Hag.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hag. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

hag

noun
ˈhag
1
: an ugly or evil old woman
2

More from Merriam-Webster on hag

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