nag

noun

1. A small horse; a pony.
2. An old, useless horse.

   “We used to lure the nags into the back of our truck with oats and sugar, then we'd drive back to town to this warehouse and inject the nags with small quantities of morphine I'd stolen.”

3. (derogatory, obsolete)A paramour.

   “Yon ribaudred nag of Egypt – Whom leprosy o'ertake!”

4. Someone or something that nags.

   “'That fellow is a nag.' 'Aye, the worst kind,' agreed Hamish, and then smiled, and at that smile, Miss Gunnery thawed even more.”

   “When we see Wolfe struggling with many depictions of woman characters throughout the novel (the earlier ones being nags and white trash), we greatly admire the development of this living tribute to Aline Bernstein, a woman whom he ends up despising in his later life.”

   “But, pchA has to produce more than awareness, always-on alerts/nags, or edu-tainment.”

5. A repeated complaint or reminder.

   “And finally the biggest thank you of all to my partner Steven Winston for your love, enthusiasm, encouragement, support, humour, nags, and glasses of wine.”

   “I turned it on Eileen and threw in a couple of my normal nags about her driving.”

   “A girl who expects her mother to nag her about her untidy bedroom will hear that message, even though the mother may want to talk about something quite different, so a loving invitiation to go shopping that started "When you've finished in your bedroom this morning. . ." might result in the child screaming, storming out and slamming the door because she expected this to be a nag about the state of the room and didn't let you finish with “ . . . shall we go to the shopping centre?”.”

6. A persistent, bothersome thought or worry.

   “All that while there was a little nag going on at the back of his mind, which he strove to disregard. But it insisted on attention, and to get rid of it he put down his palette abruptly and got out his mustard-tin cash-box and counted his money.”

   “During my lengthy aerobic strolls (which more or less served as a tool of meditation), that thought about “college” became a persistent nag.”

   “There are two ways to get rid of our nags. We can either use Ninja decision-making to turn them quickly into actions, stored in our second brain to be revisited when we have some time. Or we can simply just capture and collect the nag, knowing that our systems will ensure we return to it later.”

   “That feeling turned into a very persistent nag.”

7. (alt-of, misspelling)Misspelling of knack.

verb

1. (ambitransitive)To repeatedly remind or complain to (someone) in an annoying way, often about insignificant or unnecessary matters.

   “The room is never cleaned, so her mother nags and nags until she explodes with frustration and threatens to sell her to the lowest bidder.”

   “Anyone would think that I nagged at you, Amanda! (From Amanda! by Robin Klein)”

2. To bother with persistent thoughts or memories.

   “The notion that he forgot something nagged him the rest of the day.”

   “I guess it happens all the time in crime stories where the detective suddenly remembers a bit of conversation that nags him in some way, then for some inexplicable reason, it's just right there in front of you, like a sign pointing 'here!”

   “Sometimes I write because there is a question that nags at me, sometimes because there is a question that nags at other people.”

   “You are sleeping on your side in the bed in your flat, heavily embroiled in a dream which sucks and nags at you and makes no sense; an old primary school teacher is there and a cat you have to take to a supermarket; you are in a canoe.”

3. To bother or disturb persistently in any way.

   “But at night, around the uncertain edge of dreams, and when the wind nags, there are few whom an odd sound will not thrill”

   “When a breeze comes up and nags the surface, it sparkles like a gemstone.”

   “We are well accustomed as we look out upon Nature at close range to see great creatures harrassed^([sic]) by little creatures. The lot of each big one seems to be in the keeping of some little one, which never quits it, nags it, stings it, wears it out, drives it desperate, makes life somewhat a burden to it and death somewhat a relief.”

   “a nagging pain in his left knee”

   “a nagging north wind”

name

1. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of Numeric Annotation Glyph