different between shanghai vs worldwar

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??æ??ha?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??æ?.ha?/, /??æ??ha?/
• Rhymes: -a?

Etymology 1

American English, from Shanghai, with reference to the former practice of forcibly crewing ships heading for the Orient.

Verb

shanghai (third-person singular simple present shanghais, present participle shanghaiing, simple past and past participle shanghaied)

1. (transitive) To force or trick (someone) into joining a ship as part of the crew.

   Synonym: press-gang

   • 1999 June 24, ‘The Resurrection of Tom Waits’, in Rolling Stone, quoted in Innocent When You Dream, Orion (2006), page 256,

     It was the strangest galley: the sounds, the steam, he's screaming at his coworkers. I felt like I'd been shanghaied.

2. (transitive) To abduct or coerce.

   Synonym: press-gang

   • 1974 September 30, ‘Final Report on the Activities of the Children of God',

     Oftentimes the approach is to shanghai an unsuspecting victim.
3. (transitive, US) To trick (a person) into entering a jurisdiction where they can lawfully be arrested.
4. (transitive) To commandeer; appropriate; hijack

5. (transitive, military, slang) To transfer (a person) against their will.
   • 2020, Stephen Crane, ?Ambrose Bierce, The Military MEGAPACK®: 25 Great Tales of War (page 329)

     “Why, if you so loved and cherished the armed guard,” Captain Banning continued, “did you arrange for transfer?”
     “I never, sir! ... But he shanghaied me out of the armed guard pronto.”

Translations

Noun

shanghai (plural shanghais)

1. (US, archaic) A tall dandy.

Etymology 2

From Scottish shangan, from Scottish Gaelic seangan, influenced by the Chinese city.

Noun

shanghai (plural shanghais)

1. (Australia, New Zealand) A slingshot.
   • 1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber and Faber 2003, p. 206:

     They scrounged around the camp […] and held out their filthy wings to the feeble sun, making themselves an easy target for Charles's shanghai.

Translations

References