shanghai

v. to trick or force someone into doing something they do not want to do.

v. to coerce or trick someone into a position or course of action against their will; historically referred to kidnapping men for ship crews.

“I didn't want to go to the party, but my friends managed to shanghai me into coming.”

“The junior analyst felt he had been shanghaied into presenting the flawed data when his manager suddenly claimed to be ill.”

Informal

v. to take control of something that belongs to someone else.

v. to commandeer, hijack, or wrongfully appropriate a place, project, or object.

“The committee tried to shanghai the project and take all the credit.”

“The rival department attempted to shanghai the budget meeting to focus entirely on their own failing initiatives.”

Informal

n. a Y-shaped stick with a rubber band used for shooting small stones.

n. a hand-powered projectile weapon consisting of a Y-shaped frame with elastic strips.

“The boy spent the afternoon in the woods with his shanghai, aiming at tin cans.”

“In rural Australia, the term shanghai is the standard colloquialism for what Americans would typically call a slingshot.”

Dialect