Meanings
plural shogs
- archaicjolt, shake (brisk movement)
The shog of the vessel threw a young Chinese (whom Xavier had christened, and carried along with him) into the sink, which was then open.
1808, John Dryden, The Works of John Dryden, Volume XVI. (of 18)2 more examples
Another's diving bow he did adore, Which, with a shog, casts all the hair before, Till he with full decorum brings it back, And rises with a water-spaniel shake.
1881, Dutton Cook, A Book of the PlayMy learned friend assured me further, that the earth had lately received a shog from a comet that crossed its vortex, which, if it had come ten degrees nearer us, had made us lose this whole term.
1899, George A. Aitken, The Tatler, Volume 1, 1899
present singular third person shogs · participle present shogging · participle past shogged · past shogged
- ambitransitivearchaicto jolt or shake
1 more example
Let them make ſhews of reforming while they will, ſo long as the Church is mounted upon the Prelatical Cart, and not as it ought, between the hands of the Miniſters, it will but ſhake and totter; and he that ſets to his hand, though with a good intent to hinder the ſhogging of it, in this unlawful Waggonry wherein it rides, let him beware it be not fatal to him as it was to Uzza.
1642, John Milton, The Reason of Church-Government Urg’d against Prelaty; republished in A Complete Collection of the Historical, Political, and Miscellaneous Works of John Milton, […], volume I, Amsterdam [actually London: s.n.], 1698, →OCLC, page 203 - archaicfrequently followed by offto depart; to go.
Shall we shog? The king will be gone from Southampton.
1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]2 more examples
On the flat behind the mill, dawn-rising Chinamen shogged with nimble bare feet under their yoke-linked watering-cans. These busy brethren, meeting sometimes on the same narrow track, would pause, ant-like, seemingly to dumbly regard one another and their burdens, then, still ant-like, pass silently to their work.
1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 147Porius's mind was divided between his excited interest in the emperor's famous counsellor and his fear lest in the growing darkness his foster-brother might shog off altogether.
2007, John Cowper Powys, Porius
Origin
- Proto-West Germanic*skokkōn“to move, shake, tremble”
- Middle Low Germanschoggen
- Middle Dutchschocken“to jolt, bounce”
- Middle Englishschoggen“to shake up and down, jog”
- Englishshog
From Middle English schoggen (“to shake up and down, jog”), possibly from Middle Dutch schocken (“to jolt, bounce”) or Middle Low German schoggen, schucken (“to shog”); all from Proto-West Germanic *skokkōn (“to move, shake, tremble”). Doublet of shock.
More words from Middle English, Middle Dutch, Middle Low German
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with shog
All rhymes →Anagrams
Cite this entry
shog. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shog
“shog.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shog. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “shog,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shog.
Source: shog on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.