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tag 1 (tăg)
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n.
1. A strip of leather, paper, metal, or plastic attached to something or hung from a wearer's neck to identify, classify, or label: sale tags on all coats and dresses.
2. The plastic or metal tip at the end of a shoelace.
3. The contrastingly colored tip of an animal's tail.
4.
a. A dirty, matted lock of wool.
b. A loose lock of hair.
5. A rag; a tatter.
6. A small, loose fragment: I heard only tags and snippets of what was being said.
7. An ornamental flourish, especially at the end of a signature.
8. A designation or epithet, especially an unwelcome one: He did not take kindly to the tag of pauper.
9.
a. A brief quotation used in a discourse to give it an air of erudition or authority: Shakespearean tags.
b. A cliché, saw, or similar short, conventional idea used to embellish a discourse: These tags of wit and wisdom bore me.
c. The refrain or last lines of a song or poem.
d. The closing lines of a speech in a play; a cue.
10. Computers
a. A label assigned to identify data in memory.
b. A sequence of characters in a markup language used to provide information, such as formatting specifications, about a document.
c. A metatag.
11. Anatomy A small outgrowth or polyp: a skin tag.
12. Slang A piece of graffiti featuring text, especially the author's name, rather than a picture: “Instead of a cursive linear tag, Super Kool painted his name along the exterior of a subway car in huge block pink and yellow letters” (Eric Scigliano).
v. tagged, tag·ging, tags
v. tr.
1. To label, identify, or recognize with a tag or other identifier: I tagged him as a loser.
2. To put a ticket on (a motor vehicle) for a traffic or parking violation.
3. To add as an appendage to: tagged an extra paragraph on the letter.
4. To follow closely: Excited children tagged the circus parade to the end of its route.
5. To cut the tags from (sheep).
6. To add a taggant to: explosives that were tagged with coded microscopic bits of plastic.
7. To incorporate into (a compound) a more readily detected substance whereby the compound can be detected and its metabolic or chemical history followed.
8. Slang To mark or vandalize (a surface) with a graffiti tag: tagged the subway walls.
v. intr.
To follow after; accompany: tagged after me everywhere; insisted on tagging along.

[Middle English, dangling piece of cloth on a garment, possibly of Scandinavian origin; akin to Swedish tagg, prickle, thorn.]

tagger n.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
tag 2 (tăg)
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n.
1. Games A children's game in which one player pursues the others until that player is able to touch one of the other players, who then in turn becomes the pursuer.
2. Baseball The act of tagging a base runner.
3. Sports The act of tagging a ball carrier in touch football.
tr.v. tagged, tag·ging, tags
1. To touch (another player) in the game of tag.
2. Baseball To touch (a base runner) with the ball in order to make a putout.
3. Sports To touch (a ball carrier) to end a play in touch football.
Phrasal Verb:
tag upBaseball
To return to and touch a base with one foot before running to the next base after a fielder has caught a fly ball.

[Perhaps variant of Scots tig, touch, tap, probably alteration of Middle English tek.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.