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/ˌwæɡə ˌpæɡə ˈbæɡə/ · noun
(originally Oxford University slang, now British slang, humorous, dated) A wastepaper basket..
When young Oxford suddenly began to substitute "er" for the ordinary termination of a word, it was not making slang so much as diversifying and idiotising conversation. Thus a bedmaker was transformed to a "bedder," breakfast to "brekker," and the waste-paper basket, by a desperate effort, became the "wagger pagger bagger"—to be subsequently surpassed when the Prince of Wales [later Edward VIII] arrived at Magdalen, and was known as the "Pragger Wagger": […]
Waste-paper baskets – (I remember certain earnest youths at Oxford who used to call them wagger-pagger-baggers) – are to Philip Guedalla one of the most essential perquisites of the man of letters.
One of the first things an American has to do upon reaching Oxford is to learn the language or as we would say, the slang. One does not eat breakfast, but "brekker," the regular visit to the dean is called "doing the dean," bathing is "tubbing." A "Fresher," (freshman) throws his scratch paper into the "wagger pagger bagger" not the wastebasket as in America.
(He takes the flowers from the vase.) If you don't mind, therefore, I shall deposit them in the wagger-pagger-bagger. (He drops the flowers into the waste-paper basket.)
'Jumbo' White, rotund, merry and bright, retained our attention prancing around the schoolroom bringing history to life as he described the good guys and lambasted the villains. He was a master of the lampoon, a wagger-pagger-bagger need never be a waste paper basket again.
Use wagger-pagger-bagger when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.
Wagger-pagger-bagger means (originally Oxford University slang, now British slang, humorous, dated) A wastepaper basket..
Common synonyms include wagger, wagger-pagger, circular file, circular filing cabinet.
The opposite depends on the specific sense.
When young Oxford suddenly began to substitute "er" for the ordinary termination of a word, it was not making slang so much as diversifying and idiotising conversation. Thus a bedmaker was transformed to a "bedder," breakfast to "brekker," and the waste-paper basket, by a desperate effort, became the "wagger pagger bagger"—to be subsequently surpassed when the Prince of Wales [later Edward VIII] arrived at Magdalen, and was known as the "Pragger Wagger": […]
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