Other forms: nagging, nags, nagged
To nag is to keep on at someone about the same thing until they finally do it. A parent about the dishes, a flatmate about the bins, the fourth reminder about a dentist appointment you have not booked.
Nag is unkind about the person doing it — nobody calls their own reminders nagging. It takes AT or ABOUT: "stop nagging at me", "she nagged him about the car for weeks". It also works with no person involved at all: a doubt nags, a pain nags, a nagging feeling that you left the oven on. A nag can be the person who nags, and, in older English, a worn-out old horse. The adjective does most of the work in real speech: a nagging cough, a nagging suspicion, a nagging sense that something has been forgotten.
1verbnagTo keep asking or complaining about the same thing until somebody gives in.
“She nagged him for weeks about fixing the door.”
2verbworry(of a worry, doubt or pain) To keep bothering you slightly and constantly.
“A nagging doubt kept him awake half the night.”
3nounconstantlyA person who constantly nags.
“He called her a nag and regretted it immediately.”
4nounwornAn old, worn-out horse (dated).
“The farmer kept one grey nag in the back field.”
The nag with a written history is the horse one: Middle English nagg, "a horse, a small riding horse, a pony", with cousins in Dutch negge and German Nickel, "small horse". It may be a relation of neigh, the noise a horse makes. Whether the tired nag in the field is the same word as the person going on at you about the bins is a link nobody has proved.
Middle English
nagge — horse, small riding horse, pony
English, today
nag
Built from
From Middle English nagge (“horse, small riding horse, pony”). From Middle English nagg, nage, nagge (“horse, small riding horse, pony”), cognate with Dutch negge, neg (“horse”), German Nickel (“small horse”). Perhaps related to English neigh.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Man Called Ove, Ways of Speaking
First appears in chapter 2 of A Man Called Ove.
Practise this word