adj
Meaning 1
Not genuine; fake.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Ireland, UK, informal
Examples
- You’re wearing a blag designer shirt!
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
blag
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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Australian, General-American, Received-Pronunciation: /blæɡ/
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US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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British, Northern-England, Scotland, Southern, Standard, Wales: /blaɡ/
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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Australian: /blæːɡ/
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New-Zealand: /blɛɡ/
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/bleɪ̯ɡ/ Upper Midwestern US, Northwestern US, Canada
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rhymes with -æɡ
noun
Meaning 2
An armed robbery or robbery involving violence; also, theft.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
An attempt to obtain, or the means of obtaining, something by guile or persuasion; a trick.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Ireland, UK, informal
Examples
- A good blag to get into a nightclub is to walk in carrying a record box.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
An act of deceiving; a con, a deception, a hoax.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Ireland, UK, informal
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 5
Deliberate misspelling of blog.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Ireland, UK, alt-of, deliberate, humorous, informal, misspelling
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 6
To obtain (something) through armed robbery or robbery involving violence, or theft; to rob; to steal.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, slang, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 7
To obtain (something) for free, particularly by guile or persuasion.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Ireland, UK, informal, transitive
Examples
- Can I blag a fag?
- He’s blagged his way into many a party.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: inveigle, sponge, beg, blag, bum, cadge, leech, mooch, mump, scrounge, scunge, tap, wheedle
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 8
To obtain (something) for free, particularly by guile or persuasion.
To obtain (confidential information) by impersonation or other deception; also, to deceive (someone) into disclosing confidential information.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Ireland, UK, informal, specifically, transitive
Examples
- The newspaper is accused of blagging details of the prime minister’s flat purchase from his solicitors.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: inveigle, sponge, beg, blag, bum, cadge, leech, mooch, mump, scrounge, scunge, tap, wheedle, pretext
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 9
To obtain (something desired), or avoid (something undesired), through improvisation or luck; to fluke, to get away with.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Ireland, UK, informal, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 10
To use guile or persuasion on (someone); also, to deceive or perpetrate a hoax on (someone).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Ireland, UK, informal, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 11
To meet and seduce (someone) for romantic purposes, especially in a social situation; to pick up.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Ireland, Polari, UK, informal, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 12
To speak persuasively or with guile to obtain something.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Ireland, UK, informal, intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
Etymology
The origin of the verb is uncertain; it is possibly: * from blag (“to rob; to steal”) (see etymology 1); or * borrowed from French blaguer (“to joke (about); to tell a lie”), from blague (“pouch, especially for tobacco; joke (from the notion of something puffed up, and thus fanciful)”) (from Dutch balg (“leather bag”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bhelǵh- (“to swell”)) + -er (suffix forming infinitives of first-conjugation verbs). The adjective and noun are probably derived from the verb.
The origin of the noun is unknown. The verb is derived from the noun.
Coined by the American author, cartoonist, and engineer Randall Munroe (born 1984) in his webcomic xkcd in 2006: see the quotation.
Across languages
Translations
8 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Finnish: ryöstö — robbery involving violence
- Macedonian: гра́беж (grábež) — robbery involving violence
- Macedonian: кра́жба (krážba) — robbery involving violence
- Russian: разбо́й (razbój) — robbery involving violence
- Finnish: keplottelu — attempt to obtain, or the means of obtaining, something by guile or persuasion — see also trick
- Finnish: keplotella — to obtain (something) for free, particularly by guile or persuasion
- Finnish: keplotella — to obtain (confidential information) by impersonation or other deception; to deceive (someone) into disclosing confidential information
- Finnish: keplotella — to speak persuasively or with guile to obtain something