hag

/hæg/

/hæg/

Other forms: hags

A hag is a witch, or a witch-like old woman. Many fairy tales include a hag as a frightening character.

While the wide folklore and fairy tale tradition includes some hags with positive, benevolent qualities, you'll more often read about mean and ugly hags with evil intentions. The witch in "Hansel and Gretel" who tempts the children with her house made out of candy is one example of a famous literary hag. Mick Jagger of "The Rolling Stones" sang about another hag: "I was raised by a toothless, bearded hag." We doubt that, Mick.

Definitions of hag

1. noun

   an ugly evil-looking old woman
   synonyms: beldam, beldame, crone, witch

   type of:

   old woman

   a woman who is old
2. noun

   eellike cyclostome having a tongue with horny teeth in a round mouth surrounded by eight tentacles; feeds on dead or trapped fishes by boring into their bodies
   synonyms: hagfish, slime eels

   types:

   Myxine glutinosa

   typical hagfish

   eptatretus

   a fossil hagfish of the genus Eptatretus

   Myxinikela siroka

   fossil hagfish of the Pennsylvanian period (c. 300 million years ago) that resembled modern hagfishes

   type of:

   agnathan, jawless fish, jawless vertebrate

   eel-shaped vertebrate without jaws or paired appendages including the cyclostomes and some extinct forms