tag-team

Probably from tag team (noun).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtæɡtiːm/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈtæɡˌtim/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

tag-team (not comparable)

1. Performed by two or more people or groups working alternately.

   Both of them worked, so they practiced a sort of tag-team parenting, swapping mornings and afternoons when the kids weren’t in school.

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

1. (intransitive)
   1. (professional wrestling) To wrestle as part of a tag team (sense 1).
      • 2010, Hulk Hogan, My Life Outside the Ring, →ISBN:

        We haven't tag-teamed in the ring for quite a while.

      • 2012, Paul Spencer Sochaczewski, An Inordinate Fondness for Beetles, →ISBN, page 171:

        I suggested, to no avail, that WWF (nature) should sponsor a fluffy black-and-white wrestler called the Panda, tag-teamed with the Game Warden.

      • 2013, David Shoemaker, The Squared Circle: Life, Death, and Professional Wrestling, →ISBN, page 127:

        Life, Death, and Professional Wrestling David Shoemaker. He had some success, ... He tag-teamed with Tony Atlas (known variously as "Black Superman" and "Mr. USA") and, later, Andre the Giant, to some success.

   2. (by extension) To alternate working with someone else in order to accomplish a task.
      • 2010, Mark J. Allman, Tobias L. Winright, After the Smoke Clears: The Just War Tradition and Post War Justice, →ISBN:

        Our spouses and children have become friends, and we have tag-teamed as presenters in local settings and at national conferences.

2. (transitive)
   1. To alternate working with someone else in order to accomplish a task directed at (someone).
      • 2002, Katrina Antoinette Croswell, To Whom Much Is Given: A Novel, →ISBN, page 19:

        But Andrew and Blieu wouldn't hear of such a thing, so they tag-teamed her about staying on until finally, weakened from their constant badgering, Rachel couldn't take it any longer.

      • 2008, Anastasia Brown, Brian Mansfield, Make Me a Star, →ISBN:

        Meanwhile, the agency can pursue the network, and you guys tag-team them.

   2. (slang, vulgar) To have sex with (someone) in a group with one or more other people.
      • 1996, Fred Schultz, Education 96/97, →ISBN, page 151:

        Personal: Three horny men looking to tag-team young afro-american virgin.

      • 1996, Vanity Fair - Issues 428-430, page 112:

        I get women who want me to tag-team them, and stuff like that.

      • 2013, Deb Waterhouse-Watson, Athletes, Sexual Assault, and Trials by Media: Narrative Immunity, →ISBN:

        A strip-club owner reported that several AFL players once struck a deal with a stripper to tag-team sex with her, and offered extra and offered extra money to urinate and defecate on her as part of their 'bonding' (Halliday 2004).

• meta tag, metatag