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shanghai

v.
C2 Proficiency US //ˈʃæŋˈhaɪ// UK //ʃæŋhˈaɪ// shang·hai Archaic Slang

v. to trick or force someone into doing something they do not want to do. It originally meant kidnapping sailors to work on ships.

v. to coerce or trick someone into a position or task, often through underhanded means. Historically refers to the practice of kidnapping men for service aboard merchant ships.


SIMPLE

They tried to shanghai him into joining the committee.

CONTEXTUAL

The manager managed to shanghai several employees into working over the weekend by promising them a fake bonus.

Synonyms
Origin

c. 1840, likely from an English-derived romanization of the Mandarin Chinese pronunciation of Chinese 上海 (Shànghǎi), reinforced by Wade–Giles, Postal Romanization, and Hanyu Pinyin.

Usage

The verb is transitive and requires a direct object.

Pitfall

He was shanghai to the shipHe was shanghaied to the shipThe past tense and past participle require the suffix -ed, resulting in the spelling 'shanghaied'.

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