Standard Lemma guide

vaguen

verb · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

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.

  • General-American, Received-Pronunciation: /ˈveɪɡən/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -eɪɡən
  • homophone: vegan (one pronunciation)
  • homophone: Vegan

1

verb

Meaning 1

To make (something) vague or more vague; to blur, to obscure.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: informal, transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

verb

Meaning 2

To become (more) vague; to blur.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: informal, intransitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From vague + -en (suffix forming transitive verbs from adjectives, meaning ‘to make [adjective]’), coined by Irish writer Samuel Beckett (1906–1989), apparently first in a manuscript note to himself on an initial typescript of his play Happy Days (1961).