shanghaier


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shang·hai

 (shăng-hī′, shăng′hī′)
tr.v. shang·haied, shang·hai·ing, shang·hais
1. To kidnap (a man) for compulsory service aboard a ship, especially after drugging him.
2. To induce or compel (someone) to do something, especially by fraud or force: We were shanghaied into buying worthless securities.

[After Shanghai1from the former custom of kidnapping sailors to man ships going to China.]

shang·hai′er n.

Shang·hai 1

 (shăng-hī′, shäng′-)
A city of eastern China at the mouth of the Yangtze River southeast of Nanjing. The largest city in the country, it was a treaty port following the Opium War (1839-1842). France, Great Britain, and the United States all held large concessions in the city until the early 1900s.

Shang·hai 2

 (shăng-hī′)
n.
See Cochin2.

[After Shanghai1.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

shanghaier

(ʃæŋˈhaɪə)
n
a person who shanghais
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.shanghaier - a kidnapper who drugs men and takes them for compulsory service aboard a ship
abductor, kidnaper, kidnapper, snatcher - someone who unlawfully seizes and detains a victim (usually for ransom)
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
References in periodicals archive ?
Maher may have been an actual shanghaier or, perhaps, a well-liked local publican--and the song just a joke.
And they were found by Joseph "Bunko" Kelly, a notorious shanghaier, who sold their corpses to an unsuspecting ship captain who thought the dead would soon awaken.