What it means
A pre-wedding blowout for the groom, aka the British answer to a bachelor party. It’s the lads’ excuse for a weekend of pints, daft costumes, questionable dares and roaming about like you own the place. Usually ends with someone losing their phone and the groom swearing he’s never drinking again, until the next round.
Usage examples
"We took Gaz on a stag do, stuck him in a giant baby outfit, and he tried paying for a kebab with his cufflinks. Absolute carnage."
"His mates dragged him to Prague for the stag do and he barely remembers the second night."
"We're off to Benidorm for Kev's stag do, so if you get a message from his phone at 4am, ignore it."
"It started as a quiet stag do in town and ended with the groom wearing a traffic cone, singing Oasis outside the chippy."
"We booked a stag do in Newcastle and by midnight the groom had lost one shoe, his dignity, and the keys to the Airbnb."
Where it comes from
"Stag" has meant an all-male social thing in English since the 1800s, riffing on the male deer image. "Do" is old British slang for a party or social event. Put them together and "stag do" became the standard UK name for the groom’s last big lads’ blowout before the wedding.
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