tag

plural tags

1. Physical appendage.
   1. headingA small label.

      He has a tag hung on his bag.

      Synonyms: ticket

   2. headingA skin tag, an excrescence of skin.
   3. headingA dangling lock of sheep's wool, matted with dung; a dung tag.
   4. headingAny slight appendage, as to an article of dress; something slight hanging loosely.
   5. headingA metallic binding, tube, or point, at the end of a string, or lace, to stiffen it.
   6. biochemistryAny short peptide sequence artificially attached to proteins mostly in order to help purify, solubilize or visualize these proteins.
   7. headingSomething mean and paltry; rabble.

      For upon the like Proclamation there, they all came in, both tag and rag

      1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b]y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC

2. Last nonphysical appendage.
   1. headingThe last line (or last two lines) of a song's chorus that is repeated to indicate the end of the song.
   2. broadcastingThe last scene of a TV program, often focusing on the program's subplot.

      Often, the tag punctuates the "we're all in this together" theme and is topped with a laugh.

      2006, Stephen V. Duncan, A Guide to Screenwriting Success, page 300

      Antonyms: cold open

   3. headingThe end, or catchword, of an actor's speech; cue.
3. Nonphysical label.
   1. informalauthorshipAn attribution in narrated dialogue (eg, "he said") or attributed words (e.g. "he thought").

      If you want to start with talk, stick a tag in right away

      (Can we date this quote?), Jane MacDonald, alt.fiction.original (Usenet)

      2 more examples

      Seems here like Russ would be speaking. You could use a tag here.

      (Can we date this quote?), michael, alt.fiction.original (Usenet)

      You could combine these two paragraphs, I think, and rewrite to lose the tag portion of the third sentence.

      (Can we date this quote?), bart_...@hotmail.com, alt.fiction.original (Usenet)

      Synonyms: dialogue tag, speech tag, tag line

   2. computingA piece of markup representing an element in a markup language.

      The <title> tag provides a title for the Web page.

      1 more example

      The <sarcasm> tag conveys sarcasm in Internet slang.

   3. computingA keyword, term, or phrase associated with or assigned to data, media, and/or information enabling keyword-based classification; often used to categorize content.

      I want to add genre and artist tags to the files in my music collection.

4. Identity.
   1. USheadingA vehicle number plate; a medal bearing identification data (animals, soldiers).

      The subwoofer in the trunk was so loud, it vibrated the tag like an aluminum can.

   2. slangheadingA person's name.

      What’s your tag?

5. Involving being tagged physically.
   1. uncountablechildren's gamesheadingA game, especially for children on playgrounds, in which one player (known as "it") attempts to touch another, who then becomes "it"; any similar game of chasing and trying to reach, touch, shoot, or label other players.

      Synonyms: tips, it

   2. ball gamesAn instance of touching the baserunner with the ball or the ball in a gloved hand to rule him "out."

      The tag was applied at second for the final out.

6. headingSignature.
   1. slangartsGraffiti in the form of a stylized signature particular to the artist.

      There is a hierarchy of sorts: a throw-up can go over a tag, a piece over a throw-up, and a burner over a piece.

      2011, Scape Martinez, Graff 2: Next Level Graffiti Techniques, page 124

7. A type of cardboard.
8. A sheep in its first year.

   After being weaned, the ram or wedder lamb is sometimes termed hog, hoggit, or tag, during the whole of the first year

   1807, The Complete Farmer, or, General Dictionary of Agriculture and Husbandry, →OCLC

present singular third person tags · participle present tagging · participle past tagged · past tagged

1. transitiveTo label (something).
2. transitiveTo mark (something) with one's graffiti tag.
3. transitiveTo remove dung tags from a sheep.

   Regularly tag the rear ends of your sheep.

4. colloquialtransitiveball gamesTo hit the ball hard.

   He really tagged that ball.

5. slangtransitivevulgarto have sex with someone (especially a man of a woman)

   Steve is dying to tag Angie from chemistry class.

6. transitiveball gamesTo put a runner out by touching them with the ball or the ball in a gloved hand.

   He tagged the runner for the out.

7. transitivecomputingTo mark with a tag (metadata for classification).

   I am tagging my music files by artist and genre.

   Antonyms: untag

8. InternettransitiveTo attach the name of (a user) to a posted message so that they are linked from the post and possibly sent a notification.

   One side wants to demonstrate a higher level of street knowledge and openly denounces the distorting lens of Instagram dissings; the other embraces the medium's branding affordances by sending “clout” to a third-party ally, while at the same time avoiding tagging the opponent.

   2021, Julie B. Wiest, Theorizing Criminality and Policing in the Digital Media Age, page 82

9. To follow closely, accompany, tag along.

   "Now what'd you come tagging for?"

   1950, Dorothy M. Johnson, Flame on the Frontier; in Indian Country, London: Corgi, 1961, page 11

   1 more example

   A tall young man came striding through the park along the path near which she sat. Behind him tagged a boy carrying a suit-case.

   1906 April, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “By Courier”, in The Four Million, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co, →OCLC

10. transitiveTo catch and touch (a player in the game of tag).
11. transitiveTo fit with, or as if with, a tag or tags.

    He learned to make long-tagged thread laces.

    1911, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Bunyan, John”, in 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica

    1 more example

    His courteous host […] / Tags every sentence with some fawning word.

    1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Eighth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC

12. transitiveTo fasten; to attach.

    a. 1751, Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, an essay they began to tag their law with the scraps of philofophy

13. InternetslangtransitivegamesTo make contact with an enemy, usually by attacking it before other players do, to establish exclusive or partial eligibility for loot, experience points achievements, etc.

    He keeps tagging my mobs and I miss out on all the drops.

    1 more example

    I can fight her for you, but you have to tag her if you want the achievement.

14. transitiveentertainmentTo repeat (the ending of a song); to play a tag

plural tagin · plural tagim

1. A decoration drawn over some Hebrew letters in Jewish scrolls, especially in Stam style.

comparative more TAG · superlative most TAG

1. card gamesTight (inclined to play only strong starting hands and fold otherwise) and aggressive (inclined to raise often).

plural TAGs

1. abbreviationinitialismInitialism of tree-adjoining grammar.
2. abbreviationacronymAcronym of touch and go.