Wiktionary

tag team

See also: tag-team

English

edit
WOTD – 18 July 2023

Etymology

edit
 
The tag team (sense 1) of Gail Kim and Tara (Lisa Marie Varon) in a 2013 wrestling match against the Blossom Twins; Kim (right) is tagging Tara so they can exchange places.

Probably from tag (“children’s chasing game in which one player (known as ‘it’) attempts to touch another, who then becomes ‘it’; (baseball) instance of touching the baserunner with the ball or the ball in a gloved hand to rule him ‘out’”) +‎ team.

Pronunciation

edit

Noun

edit

tag team (plural tag teams)

  2. (professional wrestling) A group of wrestlers who work together as a team. Only one is in the ring at any given time, and they change places by "tagging" each other with a gesture like a high five.
    Synonym: (initialism) TT
  3. (by extension)
    1. Two or more people acting alternately to accomplish some task.
      • 2004, Glenda Beamon Crawford, “Believing Less is More and Positive is Better”, in Managing the Adolescent Classroom: Lessons From Outstanding Teachers, Thousand Oaks, Calif., London: Corwin Press, Sage Publications, →ISBN, page 104:
        According to Ms. Haney, "Heather and I work best as a tag team. We are aware of our confrontational weaknesses and limits, and use each other to fill in the needed strengths."
      • 2007, Jason Ryan Dorsey, “Secrets to Building Your Real-world Dream Team”, in My Reality Check Bounced! The Twentysomething’s Guide to Cashing In on Your Real-world Dreams, New York, N.Y.: Broadway Books, →ISBN, page 111:
        She says her secret to her success really isn't a secret: by surrounding herself with other people who cared about and supported her, there was no way she could fail. Whether your vision for the future is starting a rock band, opening an art gallery, designing a new videogame, or losing forty pounds and keeping it off, your tag team will make reaching that vision easier and more likely.
    2. (slang, vulgar, also attributively) An act of two or more people having sex with one person who is the focus of the sexual activity; a gangbang (sense 1); also, the people having sex with the person who is the focus of the sexual activity regarded as a group.
      • [1989, Ronald Kessler, “Happy Birthday”, in Moscow Station: How the KGB Penetrated the American Embassy, New York, N.Y.: Scribner, →ISBN, part I, page 199:
        After downing a few drinks, the two Marines had vaginal and anal intercourse with her simultaneously, then took turns with her as the other watched. They referred to the former practice as "scrogging"; they called the later activity "tag team".]
      • 1991, Havelock Nelson, Michael A. Gonzales, “Whodini”, in Bring the Noise: A Guide to Rap Music and Hip-hop Culture, New York, N.Y.: Harmony Books, →ISBN, pages 280–281:
        "He's the rapper J [Jalil Hutchins]/I'm the rapper Ecs [Ecstasy, i.e., John Fletcher]/We're known for playing tag-team sex," they declare. For guys who dedicate their albums to their wives and first loves, this is a surprising revelation.
      • 1993, Imre Salusinszky, Gerald Murnane, Melbourne, Vic.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 26:
        Adrian's own auto-erotic fantasies take him, for several nights of each week, to an imaginary America—a now fully eroticised version of the same space in Tamarisk Row—where he copulates frenziedly with tag-teams of female film-stars.
      • 2000 April, Sapphrodykie [pseudonym], “The Iconoclast”, in Kim Howard, Annie Stevens, editors, Out & About Campus: Personal Accounts by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgendered College Students, Los Angeles, Calif.: Alyson Books, →ISBN, page 136:
        Men on campus began to view my sexuality as some sort of kinky sex game in which they either wanted to be the referee or a tag-team partner.
      • 2001, Jefferson Hane Weaver, “Sex in America”, in What are the Odds?: The Chances of Extraordinary Events in Everyday Life, Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, →ISBN, page 38:
        He merely wants to obtain some quantitative information about the rate at which married couples have sexual intercourse and he is not interested in passing judgment or evaluating their techniques or even serving as a tag-team member in any unique marital games.
      • 2007, Arthur M. Shapiro, Field Guide to Butterflies of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Valley Regions (California Natural History Guides; 92), Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, →ISBN, page 56:
        A male that sees another male ahead of him going up the hill speeds up to overtake him, "just in case" a female actually is there. Hence the apparent tag teams! Many insects, including both diurnal and nocturnal moths, use airborne sex-attractant chemicals (pheromones) to facilitate mate location.
      • 2008, Mike Maddox, chapter 3, in Jonathan Oliver, editor, The Worm that Wasn’t (Dreams of Inan), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Abaddon Books, →ISBN:
        I'm considering an alternative therapy and might try losing myself in deep erotic abandonment with a squad of muscular, tanned firemen. […] Properly rude sexual experimentation. Tag-team intercourse, no holds barred physical gratification with no thought to the consequences.

Derived terms

edit

Translations

edit

Verb

edit

tag team (third-person singular simple present tag teams, present participle tag teaming, simple past and past participle tag teamed)

  1. Alternative form of tag-team
    • 1986, Dave Meltzer, The Wrestling Observer's Who's who in Pro Wrestling, page 59:
      He and Scott tag teamed as "The Long Riders".
    • 2008, Ron "Kwiet Storm" Smith, Loving Deeds for the Children: A Man Called Hawk, →ISBN, page 23:
      Hawkinson and Minnis tag teamed as they discussed the differences between males and men.
    • 2011, Bob Adams, My Life in a Blog: Real Thoughts from a Real Pastor in the Real World, →ISBN, page 63:
      I am pretty excited about this; I have tag teamed a message with my brother, my wife, and my good friend Mike Barden in the past and I really enjoyed it.
    • 2013, Gil L. Robertson, Where Did Our Love Go, page 233:
      Without hesitation, they tag teamed to let her know she was okay; it wasn't the end of the world; and most importantly, there was more fun in store for her.
    • 2014, Ellyssa Muniz, Hope Striders: A New Beginnings End, →ISBN, page 289:
      Alison and Jonah tag teamed knowing their strengths.
    • 2015, Harris M. Lentz III, Biographical Dictionary of Professional Wrestling, 2nd edition, →ISBN, page 362:
      She tag teamed with the Lock for awhile[sic] before managing Rock and Blade, the Star Riders, in Florida.

Further reading

edit

Anagrams

edit
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=tag_team&oldid=82047751"