anbaggern

What it means

1. 1.

   To hit on someone — heavily, obviously and usually without success. The excavator in the etymology is doing real work: the word implies persistence and a total absence of subtlety.

2. 2.

   Almost always used of other people. You say someone was angebaggert; you rarely describe your own approach that way unless you are being self-deprecating.

Literally: To dig at someone with an excavator.

Examples with translations

• Der hat sie den ganzen Abend angebaggert.

  He was all over her the entire evening.

• Werd ich hier gerade angebaggert?

  Am I being chatted up right now?

Where it comes from

From Bagger, an excavator, itself from Dutch baggeren, to dredge. A 20th-century coinage, and one of the more vivid images in German slang — the suitor as heavy plant machinery.

Other forms

Similar terms:

anmachen, aufreißen