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

Noun (1) although she looks like a hag, she's really the sweetest old lady you could ever hope to meet falsely accused of being a hag who had caused the plague
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Noun
The film treats Ryder’s Beth as the evil hag witch who the virginal hard worker Nina has to beat to achieve her dreams, and Ryder plays that role with relish and gusto. Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 6 Sep. 2024 Oh, and Jen is also there, dressed as the hag form of the Evil Queen from Snow White. Katie Campione, Deadline, 23 Oct. 2024 Goth did double duty in X, playing both Maxine, the adult-film director’s girlfriend and star, and homicidal hag Pearl. David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 26 June 2024 Its narrator was Constance Garnett, the real-life translator of Russian classics, reimagined as a senile, spotlight-stealing hag. Michael Schulman, The New Yorker, 15 Apr. 2024 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

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 30 Dec. 2024.

Kids Definition

hag

noun
ˈhag
1
: an ugly or evil old woman
2

More from Merriam-Webster on hag

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