shanghai

Etymology 1

1871, from the important Chinese port Shanghai, as a verb with reference to the former practice by some shippers on the West Coast of the United States of press-ganging crews for fishing or shipping in the Pacific Ocean.

verb

1. (transitive) To force or trick someone to go somewhere or do something against their will or interest, particularly
   1. To press-gang sailors, especially (historical) for shipping or fishing work.
      By this time I hadn't much doubt of the nature of the trap and the identity of the trapping vessel. The faint smell of alcohol in the forehold told the story. I had been sandbagged and taken aboard a bootlegging craft, shanghaied in good old-fashioned style; and the vessel was probably now on its way to the Bahamas for a cargo of spirits. 1923, Francis Lynde, chapter //dummy.host/index.php?title=s%3Aen%3ASomewhere+in+the+Caribbean%2FChapter+2 2, in Somewhere in the Caribbean
   2. (US law enforcement slang) To trick a suspect into entering a jurisdiction in which they can be lawfully arrested.
   3. (US military slang) To transfer a serviceman against their will.
      “Why, if you so loved and cherished the armed guard,” Captain Banning continued, “did you arrange for transfer?” “I never, sir! ... But he shanghaied me out of the armed guard pronto.” Eugene Cunningham, "A One-Man Navy"
2. (transitive) To commandeer, hijack, or otherwise (usually wrongfully) appropriate a place or thing.
   Let's see if we can shanghai a room for a couple of hours.

noun

1. (often capitalized, dated) A breed of chicken with large bodies, long legs, and feathered shanks.
   Cochins or Shanghaes. 1853, W.B. Tegetmeier, Profitable Poultry, page 19
2. (US, obsolete) A kind of daub.
   The ‘shanghai’ is the glaring daub required by some frame-makers for cheap auctions. They are turned out at so much by the day's labor, or at from $12 to $24 a dozen, by the piece. 1880 Jan., Scribner's Monthly, p. 365
3. (US, obsolete) A tall dandy.
4. (darts, often capitalized) A kind of dart game in which players are gradually eliminated ("shanghaied"), usually either by failing to reach a certain score in 3 quick throws or during a competition to hit a certain prechosen number and then be the first to hit the prechosen numbers of the other players.
   ‘Shanghai’ may be played by teams of 8, in pairs, individually, or, in fact, any number. 1930, Anchor Magazine, page 196
   The hot twenty—including local favourites George Simmons, Tony Brown, Mick Norris and Lew Walker—have to sweat through nineteen 501s, one 1,001, one 2,001, one round-the-board-on-doubles, one shanghai and one halve-it. 1977 May 10, Daily Mirror, p. 30

Etymology 2

From Scottish shangan, from Scottish Gaelic seangan, influenced by the Chinese city.

noun

1. (Australia, New Zealand) Synonym of slingshot.
   Turn, turn thy shang~hay dread aside, Nor touch that little bird 1863 Oct. 24, Leader, p. 17
   They scrounged around the camp […] and held out their filthy wings to the feeble sun, making themselves an easy target for Charles's shanghai. 1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber and Faber, published 2003, page 206
   However, certain objects are excluded from being treated as a gun. These include a longbow, crossbow, slingshot or shanghai even though it is capable of propelling a projectile by means of an explosive force. 2020, Parliament of Singapore, “Guns, Explosives and Weapons Control Bill”, in Republic of Singapore Government Gazette, page 161

verb

1. (Australia, New Zealand) To hit with a slingshot.