Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Scot.) to steal.

1937–84

Partridge DSUE (1984) 713: from ca. 1815.

2. to chatter, to talk, to scold; thus magging n.

1815		‘A Typitywichet’ in Vocal Mag. 1 June 193: But stop, I mustn’t mag hard.
c.1820		‘How They’re All Magging’ in Holloway & Black II (1979) 112: How they’re all magging mag mag magging. / How they’re magging at our house at home.
1830		R.B. Peake Haunted Inn I i: Magging in this way, you may dangle after him to the Land’s-End.
1843		W.T. Moncrieff Scamps of London I ii: Stow magging – here’s more coves coming [F&H].
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1862		‘Her Tongue Kept Magging’ in Prince of Wales’ Own Song Book 19: I have a wife a teazer – a wixen sure is she [...] And her tongue keeps magging, / As she walks by my side.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1885		M. Davitt Leaves from a Prison Diary I 201: ‘I say, pals, who is the new chum in No. 7’ (my cell) ‘who won’t mag?’ (talk).
1891		S.O. Addy Sheffield Gloss. (Supp.) 36: Mag, to chatter.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 28 Oct. 5/6: I’m sorry to hear about your turn-up with Trooper last night, Jaypee.’ ‘Who’s been magging about it?’.
1907		Sun. Times (Perth) 3 Nov. 4/7: To talk binomial theorem and mag about hypotheneuse.
1910		D. Stewart Devil of Dartmoor in Illus. Police News 29 Oct. 12/2: ‘I was magging about that infernal ’tec’.
1912		H. Lawson ‘Grandfather’s Courtship’ in Roderick (1972) 878: We’ve been maggin ’enough, Lord knows, for one night.
1919		W.H. Downing Digger Dialects 33: mag (vb. or n.) — Chatter.
1919		L. Esson Drovers (1977) 8: It’s the devil’s own luck—but there—what’s the use of magging like an old crow?
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 309: You’ve got nothing to mag about, anyway — your grandmother was a lubra and your grandfather a Pong.
1940		H. Drake-Brockman Hot Gold III i: Mum kept him magging on the front step, so I got out the window.
1954		(con. 1940s) T.A.G. Hungerford Sowers of the Wind 9: It’s too cold to stand here magging.
1960		A. Seymour One Day of the Year (1977) I i: You two buggers sittin’ ’ere swillin’ afternoon tea every day, mag, mag, mag—.
1967		J. Wynnum I’m a Jack, All Right 13: Cut your magging, reel in that wire and fall in.
1974		D. Ireland Burn 33: When are you gunna cut out yer maggin’ and get us something to eat?
1983		R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 15: He wheeled into the Town Hall hotel and within a matter of minutes he was magging on with the stiffs who had been nursing their pig’s ears into flatness.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 39: magsman (a swindler or con man in more recent slang, also surviving perhaps in the current use of magging for talking.

3. to talk at, to nag; thus magging n.

1825		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 15 May 126/2: I am not a woman that's given to magging at my husband; if he comes home sober I am pleased to see him, and if he comes home drunk I put him to bed and say nothing.
1843		W.T. Moncrieff Scamps of London I iii: Stow magging – here’s more coves coming.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict. n.p.: Magging peevish talking.
1864		E. Yates Broken to Harness III 128: I can understand it all, you’ve been worked upon by the chatter and magging of these silly women until you’ve lost your own calm common sense.
1905		Salt Lake Herald (UT) 26 Mar. 5/1: Hardy Downing [...] translates the Australian slang in the above as follows: ‘Ikeys’ are bookmakers; a ‘punter’ is a small better; ‘magging’ is eqivalent to the term ‘kidding’.
1906		E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 232: Yeh never did, Goudy! Don’t mag ter me, yeh never did!
1924		C.J. Dennis ‘The Faltering Knight’ in Chisholm (1951) 73: Not that she torks an’ mags a lot; but yet / Ther’s somethin’ in ’er choice uv a remark / That gets there, worse than yappin’ all day long.
1954		(con. 1940s) T.A.G. Hungerford Sowers of the Wind 9: It’s too cold to stand here magging.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 168: He didn’t want him around, magging his head off.
1968		A. Buzo Norm and Ahmed (1973) 23: And when I find someone to talk to, I just mag away like an old woman and ruin everything.
1973		(ref. to 1890s) ‘Gloss. of Larrikin Terms’ in J. Murray Larrikins 203: mag: to talk.
1990		R.G. Barratt ‘’ in What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] [W]e were talking about rock’n’roll, venues, bands, etc. Then we got magging about law and order.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 2: Although mostly taken for granted, the importance of the vernacular in everyday life is apparent from the number of Lingoisms describing or referring to it [...] spieler; chiack; barrack; sledge; spitting chips, magging.

4. (UK Und.) to cheat; esp. through insincere talk.

1840		Flash Mirror 6: Gammoning or Magging. — Meeting a Yokel [...] persuading him to enter a public house with you, making him drunk [etc] .
1860		R. Nicholson Rogue’s Progress (1966) 25: [note] ‘Magging’ is the offence so frequently perpetrated against countrymen in London, who are, by talking to [...] led into making wagers on absurd questions, skittle-playing, &c., by which means they are [...] ‘cleaned out’.
1868		‘Six Years in the Prisons of England’ in Temple Bar Mag. Nov. 539: You can ‘mag’ a man at any time you are playing cards or billiards, and in various ways.
1885		M. Davitt Leaves from a Prison Diary I 58: But if it be an ordinary or respectable establishment, the operation of ‘maggin’ the gowk out of his purse’ becomes less certain.
1895		Truth (Sydney) 12 May 5/7: He worked his lurks on his own hook, except in regard to ‘magging’.