blag

See also: Appendix:Variations of "blag"

English

WOTD – 22 June 2023

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /blæɡ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æɡ

Etymology 1

The origin of the noun is unknown. The verb is derived from the noun.

Noun

blag (plural blags)

1. (British, criminal slang) An armed robbery or robbery involving violence; also, theft.
   • 1977, G[ordon] F[rank] Newman, chapter 4, in Law and Order, St. Albans, Hertfordshire: Granada Publishing, published 1983, →ISBN, page 40:

     'What's he do, Micky?' / 'Armed blags is what I hear – s'posed to be one or two nice little tucks down to him that he didn't go for. He keeps well active. Someone told me he's putting one together now. […]'

   • 1997, Stephen Smith, “Helter Skelter Years”, in Addict: An Incredible True Story with a Fairytale End, [United Kingdom]: Westworld International, →ISBN:

     Through Lenny I had met a character whom I shall call Billy. He was part of a blag team famous for a series of large-scale wage snatches.

   • 2000 April, J. J. Connolly, “April Fool’s Day 1997: Welcome to the Layer Cake”, in Layer Cake, London: Duck Editions, Duckworth Literary Entertainments, published July 2001, →ISBN, page 6:

     They're turning over any business that couldn't go running back to the Other People, sex shops and massage parlours, doing blags long after they went outta fashion, doing loads of drugs and not giving a fuck about keeping a low profile.

   • 2005, Echo Freer, chapter 1, in Diamond Geezers, London: Hodder Children’s Books, Hodder Headline, →ISBN, page 2:

     Darlin' – I know your old man's keen for you to learn the ropes an' all that, but let's not forget who's running this blag, shall we?

Translations

armed robbery — see armed robbery

robbery involving violence

• Finnish: ryöstö (fi)
• Galician: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: гра́беж m (grábež), кра́жба f (krážba)
• Russian: разбо́й (ru) m (razbój)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: please add this translation if you can

  Roman: please add this translation if you can

theft — see theft

Verb

blag (third-person singular simple present blags, present participle blagging, simple past and past participle blagged)

1. (transitive, British, criminal slang) To obtain (something) through armed robbery or robbery involving violence, or theft; to rob; to steal.

Derived terms

• blagger
• blagging (noun)

Translations

to obtain (something) through armed robbery or robbery involving violence — see rob

to obtain (something) through theft — see steal

Etymology 2

The origin of the verb is uncertain; it is possibly:

• from blag (“to rob; to steal”) (see etymology 1); or
• borrowed from French blaguer (“to joke (about); to tell a lie”), from blague (“pouch, especially for tobacco; joke (from the notion of something puffed up, and thus fanciful)”) (from Dutch balg (“leather bag”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵʰ- (“to swell”)) + -er (suffix forming infinitives of first-conjugation verbs).

The adjective and noun are probably derived from the verb.

Verb

blag (third-person singular simple present blags, present participle blagging, simple past and past participle blagged) (British, Ireland, informal)

1. (transitive)
   1. To obtain (something) for free, particularly by guile or persuasion.

      Synonyms: inveigle, sponge; see also Thesaurus:scrounge

      Can I blag a fag?

      He’s blagged his way into many a party.

      • 1998, Ajay Close, chapter 21, in Forspoken, London: Vintage Books, published 1999, →ISBN, page 258:

        He was just off to the Tramway to see that Dutch dance company. He said we could probably blag free tickets, they're desperate to paper the house.

      • 2004 January, Huw Collingbourne, “Rants and Raves: The Host with the Most”, in PC Plus, number 211, Bath, Somerset: Future plc, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 241, column 1:

        A couple of others [websites] are hosted by U-Net (www.vianetworks.co.uk), which provided free space because I'm an unprincipled journo and I blagged it.

      • 2023 January 25, Howard Johnston, “Peter Kelly: August 2 1944 – December 28 2022”, in Rail, number 975, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 46:

        He later recalled that blagging a cab ride to Warrington Dallam shed on Stanier '8F' 48531 was a life-changing experience.

      1. (specifically) To obtain (confidential information) by impersonation or other deception; also, to deceive (someone) into disclosing confidential information.

         Synonym: pretext

         The newspaper is accused of blagging details of the prime minister’s flat purchase from his solicitors.

         • 2004, Anna Maxted, chapter 2, in Being Committed, New York, N.Y.: ReganBooks, →ISBN, page 13:

           I worked for a trace agency. The years became a blur. Your every day is spent ringing people to blag information out of them. You can do this in a nice way, but truth is, you choose the quickest.

         • 2012, Alan Gillies, “Threats to the Security of Your Information”, in Data Protection for Slightly Bigger Companies, [Morrisville, N.C.]: Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 47:

           Matt Driscoll claimed that "blagging", or impersonating a third party, was used to secure the confidential information after receiving a tip that [Alex] Ferguson might be suffering from ill health. The former journalist added: "I was told sometimes you'd get a situation where if an investigator sent a fax to a GP or a hospital saying 'I'm his specialist, I need these details' it was incredible how often that would just get sent straight back."

           A noun use.

         • 2014, Nick Davies, “Crime in Fleet Street”, in Hack Attack: How the Truth Caught Up with Rupert Murdoch, London: Vintage Books, →ISBN, part 1 (Crime and Concealment), page 80:

           [H]e also became a specialist in blagging British Telecom and mobile phone companies, from whom he extracted ex-directory numbers, lists of Friends and Family numbers, and rocs. He claimed that his thousands of victims included the Queen, Princess Diana and David Beckham.

   2. To obtain (something desired), or avoid (something undesired), through improvisation or luck; to fluke, to get away with.
      • 1996, Paul Mathur, “Creation and Faith”, in Take Me There: Oasis, the Story, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, published 1997, →ISBN, page 21:

        ‘For the first six years I was a total chancer,’ he [Alan McGee] said. ‘I blagged it. All I did was keep choosing the right band and try not to fuck it up too much, which I usually did. […] [N]obody taught me to run a record company and I’ve made millions of mistakes.’

      • 2021 August 23, Philip Barantini, James Cummings, 12:18 from the start, in Philip Barantini, director, Boiling Point (film), spoken by Freeman (Ray Panthaki):

        Carly (played by Vinette Robinson): Now we’ve got just about enough lamb? / Freeman: No, we haven’t got enough lamb. / Carly: We’ve got eno— – we’ve got enough. / Andy Jones (played by Stephen Graham): All right. I’m sorry, lad. What’s your fucking problem? / Freeman: What’s my problem, Andy? It’s time and time a-fucking-gain. You’re not doing your job. / Carly: Freeman, Freeman. / Andy Jones: I can’t do them now, I didn’t do them last night, did I? I’m sorry, I apologise. I apologise. Have I said I’m sorry? Have I said I’m sorry? / Freeman: We’ve blagged it. It’s fine. We’ve got a menu for tonight.

   3. To use guile or persuasion on (someone); also, to deceive or perpetrate a hoax on (someone).
      • 1987, Roger Grimshaw, Tony Jefferson, “Patrol Report”, in Interpreting Policework: Policy and Practice in Forms of Beat Policing, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire: Allen & Unwin, →ISBN, part II (The Unit Beat System), page 58:

        He asks me afterwards if I realize what a lot of 'blagging' (bull) there is in his job. I reply, 'You blagging him or him blagging you?' / 'Oh no, blagging him,' he says. 'When you give him a ticket or something, you have to be nice to them.'

   4. (Polari) To meet and seduce (someone) for romantic purposes, especially in a social situation; to pick up.
      • 1997, Ian Lucas, “The Color of His Eyes: Polari and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence”, in Anna Livia, Kira Hall, editors, Queerly Phrased: Language, Gender, and Sexuality, New York, N.Y., Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 89:

        Derek Jarman had also publicly identified himself as HIV-positive, while at the same time celebrating what the mainstream press saw and criticized as a promiscuous irresponsibility in blagging trade on Hampstead Heath, an infamous (and very popular) gay cruising ground in North London.

2. (intransitive) To speak persuasively or with guile to obtain something.
   • 1864, Jeremiah O’Donovan, A Brief Account of the Author’s Interview with His Countrymen, and of the Parts of the Emerald Isle whence They Emigrated. […], Pittsburgh, Pa.: Published by the author, →OCLC, page 44:

     Some of my readers will undoubtedly call in question the veracity of what follows, and brand it with the title which is commonly called blagging still. This appellation cannot debilitate its sincerity; […]

     A noun use. Possibly a different sense of blag?

Derived terms

• blagged (adjective)
• blagger
• blagging (noun)

Translations

to obtain (something) for free, particularly by guile or persuasion

• Finnish: keplotella (fi)
• Galician: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: please add this translation if you can

  Roman: please add this translation if you can

to obtain (confidential information) by impersonation or other deception; to deceive (someone) into disclosing confidential information

• Finnish: keplotella (fi)
• Galician: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: please add this translation if you can

  Roman: please add this translation if you can

to obtain (something desired), or avoid (something undesired), through improvisation or luck — see fluke,‎ get away with

to deceive or perpetrate a hoax on (someone) — see deceive,‎ hoax

to meet and seduce (someone) for romantic purposes — see pick up

to speak persuasively or with guile to obtain something

• Finnish: keplotella (fi)
• Galician: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: please add this translation if you can

  Roman: please add this translation if you can

Adjective

blag (comparative more blag, superlative most blag)

1. (British, informal) Not genuine; fake.

   You’re wearing a blag designer shirt!

Translations

not genuine — see fake

Noun

blag (plural blags) (British, informal)

1. An attempt to obtain, or the means of obtaining, something by guile or persuasion; a trick.

   A good blag to get into a nightclub is to walk in carrying a record box.

2. An act of deceiving; a con, a deception, a hoax.
   • 2013, Janis Pegrum Smith, More than Gold‎^[1], [United Kingdom]: T*P Books, Wilton End Publishing, →ISBN:

     Because I used to run cons with him. I came up here as a nun, but that was just a blag to make money out of the miners.

   • 2014, Russell Brand, “Tiny Problems in Infinite Space”, in Revolution, London: Century, Random House, →ISBN, page 68:

     Anyone who claims to be operating on a model designed to fulfil the will of Jesus, or Allah, or Krishna, or anyone, who isn't first and foremost dedicated to the union of all humankind and service of the needy is on a massive blag.

Translations

attempt to obtain, or the means of obtaining, something by guile or persuasion — see also trick

• Finnish: keplottelu (fi)
• Galician: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: please add this translation if you can

  Roman: please add this translation if you can

act of deceiving — see con,‎ deception,‎ hoax

Etymology 3

Coined by the American author, cartoonist, and engineer Randall Munroe (born 1984) in his webcomic xkcd in 2006: see the quotation.

Noun

blag (plural blags)

1. (humorous, informal) Deliberate misspelling of blog. [from 2006]
   • 2006 August 25, Randall Munroe, “Mispronouncing”, in xkcd‎^[2], archived from the original on 2023-03-16:

     Why don't you write about it in your blag?

   • 2010 November 16, “Slogoin” [pseudonym], “Tashi, Take a Look at This on Larry Deack’s Web Site”, in rec.music.classical.guitar‎^[3] (Usenet), retrieved 2023-03-17:

     RONFLMAF! You do have a way with words. I think I need to update my blag, this is just too good.

   • 2011 June 2, “flatfish+++” [pseudonym], “Article: ‘Why I’m a Bad Freetard – Or the Quest for a New Phone’”, in comp.os.linux.advocacy‎^[4] (Usenet):

     So, no less than ten people have asked me why the hell I did what I did, so here's a blag post to explain it, I guess.

Derived terms

• interblag

Translations

deliberate misspelling of blog — see blog

Further reading

• blag (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Glab

Antillean Creole

Etymology

From French blague.

Noun

blag

1. joke

German Low German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /blɔːx/, /blɒːx/ (more on the merger of monophthongal A and O)

Adjective

blag

1. Alternative spelling of blaag

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *bolgъ.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /blâːɡ/

Adjective

blȃg (Cyrillic spelling бла̑г, definite blȃgī, comparative blȁžī)

1. mild, gentle, soft, slight

   Skrenite blago ulijevo. ― Turn slightly to the left.

2. (intensifier, colloquial) any, damn, faintest

   Nemam blage ideje o čemu pričaš! ― I don't have any idea what you're talking about.

Declension

positive indefinite forms

singular		masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative		blag	blaga	blago
genitive		blaga	blage	blaga
dative		blagu	blagoj	blagu
accusative	inanimate animate	blag blaga	blagu	blago
vocative		blag	blaga	blago
locative		blagu	blagoj	blagu
instrumental		blagim	blagom	blagim
plural		masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative		blagi	blage	blaga
genitive		blagih	blagih	blagih
dative		blagim(a)	blagim(a)	blagim(a)
accusative		blage	blage	blaga
vocative		blagi	blage	blaga
locative		blagim(a)	blagim(a)	blagim(a)
instrumental		blagim(a)	blagim(a)	blagim(a)

positive definite forms

singular		masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative		blagi	blaga	blago
genitive		blagog(a)	blage	blagog(a)
dative		blagom(u/e)	blagoj	blagom(u/e)
accusative	inanimate animate	blagi blagog(a)	blagu	blago
vocative		blagi	blaga	blago
locative		blagom(e/u)	blagoj	blagom(e/u)
instrumental		blagim	blagom	blagim
plural		masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative		blagi	blage	blaga
genitive		blagih	blagih	blagih
dative		blagim(a)	blagim(a)	blagim(a)
accusative		blage	blage	blaga
vocative		blagi	blage	blaga
locative		blagim(a)	blagim(a)	blagim(a)
instrumental		blagim(a)	blagim(a)	blagim(a)

comparative forms

singular		masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative		blaži	blaža	blaže
genitive		blažeg(a)	blaže	blažeg(a)
dative		blažem(u)	blažoj	blažem(u)
accusative	inanimate animate	blaži blažeg(a)	blažu	blaže
vocative		blaži	blaža	blaže
locative		blažem(u)	blažoj	blažem(u)
instrumental		blažim	blažom	blažim
plural		masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative		blaži	blaže	blaža
genitive		blažih	blažih	blažih
dative		blažim(a)	blažim(a)	blažim(a)
accusative		blaže	blaže	blaža
vocative		blaži	blaže	blaža
locative		blažim(a)	blažim(a)	blažim(a)
instrumental		blažim(a)	blažim(a)	blažim(a)

superlative forms

singular		masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative		najblaži	najblaža	najblaže
genitive		najblažeg(a)	najblaže	najblažeg(a)
dative		najblažem(u)	najblažoj	najblažem(u)
accusative	inanimate animate	najblaži najblažeg(a)	najblažu	najblaže
vocative		najblaži	najblaža	najblaže
locative		najblažem(u)	najblažoj	najblažem(u)
instrumental		najblažim	najblažom	najblažim
plural		masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative		najblaži	najblaže	najblaža
genitive		najblažih	najblažih	najblažih
dative		najblažim(a)	najblažim(a)	najblažim(a)
accusative		najblaže	najblaže	najblaža
vocative		najblaži	najblaže	najblaža
locative		najblažim(a)	najblažim(a)	najblažim(a)
instrumental		najblažim(a)	najblažim(a)	najblažim(a)

Derived terms

• Blagoje / Благоје
• Blagojević / Благојевић (“Blagoyevich”)

Related terms

• blagost

Further reading

• “blag”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2025

Slovene

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *bolgъ.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bláːk/

Adjective

blȃg (comparative blážji or blȃžji, superlative nȁjblážji or nȁjblȃžji)

1. mild, gentle, soft

Further reading

• “blag”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU (in Slovene), 2014–2025