Definition

Noun: 1. A person who kidnaps someone, typically by drugging them, to force them into service on a ship: A "shanghaier" is a person who engages in the historical practice of "shanghaiing," which involved coercing or tricking men into working as sailors on long sea voyages, often against their will.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • The notorious shanghaier operated in the port taverns, looking for unsuspecting victims.
  • Sailors feared the shanghaiers who prowled the waterfront districts.
  • He was drugged by a shanghaier and woke up on a ship bound for the Orient.

Advanced Usage

• The term is historically specific, referring to a practice common in major ports during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It is rarely used in a literal sense today.
• It can be used figuratively to describe someone who uses coercion or trickery to force another person into an unwanted situation or commitment.
  • My friend is a real shanghaier; he talked me into volunteering for a committee I didn't want to join.

Variants and Related Words

• Shanghai (verb, historical): To kidnap (a man) for compulsory service aboard a ship, especially after drugging him.
  • Many men were shanghaied in the port of San Francisco.
• Shanghaiing (noun, gerund): The act or practice of shanghaiing someone.
  • Shanghaiing was a serious problem for merchant sailors.

Synonyms

• Kidnapper
• Press-gang member (historical, specifically for naval service)
• Abductor
• Crimp (historical slang for a person who procured sailors by coercion)

Related Idioms and Phrases

• To be shanghaied: To be tricked or forced into doing something against one's will.
  • I feel like I was shanghaied into organizing the office party again.

Noun

1. a kidnapper who drugs men and takes them for compulsory service aboard a ship