waggish

adjective

wag·​gish ˈwa-gish 

1

: resembling or characteristic of a wag

a waggish friend

a waggish prose style

2

: done or made in waggery or for sport : humorous

waggish spoofs of popular songs

waggishly adverb

waggishness noun

Did you know?

The Dark History of Waggish

One who is waggish acts like a wag. What, then, is a wag? It has nothing to do with a dog’s tail; in this case a wag is a clever person prone to joking. Though light-hearted in its use and meaning, the probable source of this particular wag is grim: it is thought to be short for waghalter, an obsolete English word that translates as gallows bird, a gallows bird being someone thought to be deserving of hanging. The wag in waghalter is the familiar wag having to do with movement, and halter is another word for a noose.

Synonyms

• arch
• devilish
• elvish
• espiègle
• impish
• knavish
• leprechaunish
• mischievous
• pixie
• pixy
• pixieish
• prankish
• puckish
• rascally
• roguish
• scampish
• sly
• tricksy
• wicked

Examples of waggish in a Sentence

a waggish disposition that often got him into trouble as a child

Recent Examples on the Web

The waggish jeer that subverts the Reich Chancellery, designed by Adolf Hitler's chief architect, Albert Speer, must have sent the woman who chastises children for flatulent folly into a tizzy. —Natasha Gural, Forbes, 12 Jan. 2025

After publishing a New York Times piece about grieving her late husband, the waggish writer received an email from a kindly old acquaintance who was also recently widowed. —Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY, 24 Oct. 2024

He’s left a distinctive stamp on the orchestra’s sound in the years since, whether declaiming the beginning of Mahler 5 with a preacher’s conviction or, as in a recent Ravinia concert, tossing off a ragtime solo with waggish virtuosity. —Hannah Edgar, Chicago Tribune, 5 Aug. 2024

Foreman’s own work was waggish, so the Off Off Broadway Wooster production is frequently tongue-in-cheek. —Helen Shaw, The New Yorker, 13 Apr. 2024

The three children of Leonard Bernstein uphold their father’s legacy with waggish exuberance. —Michael Schulman, The New Yorker, 13 Nov. 2023

His simple line drawings—in contrast with painterly images more common to the times—and waggish humor also made way for the eerie and fanciful later work of William Steig and ultimately for the refinement of Saul Steinberg’s sharp wit. —Françoise Mouly, The New Yorker, 28 Aug. 2023

That is an untitled image by the waggish Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, from 1999, and the poor guy being displayed, with a heretical hint of crucifixion, is a gallery owner from Milan—a kindred spirit for Nemo, who is equally stuck. —Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 17 Mar. 2023

Trendy, vapid Chazelle sentimentalized a token Mexican immigrant in Babylon, but Jordan and waggish co-screenwriter William Monahan, who scripted Scorsese’s The Departed, plays with ethnicity (those Irish mugs, Lange’s perfect brogue, and Cumming’s perfect Southern twang). —Armond White, National Review, 17 Feb. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1589, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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Kids Definition

waggish

adjective

wag·​gish ˈwag-ish 

: displaying or done in a spirit of good-humored mischief

waggish pranks