hashtag

noun

1. (Internet)A metadata tag, signaled by a preceding hash sign (#), used to label content.

   “I support the hash tag convention: http://tinyurl.com/2qttlb #hashtag #factoryjoe #twitter”

   “You can also search for a hashtag by typing a topic (without the #) in the search box and clicking Search.”

   “While hashtags aren't formally part of Twitter, some clients, such as Tweetdeck, will persist hashtags across replies to create a sort of message threading.”

   “The planes are moving into position. The foreign ministers of minor Arab states are taking calls on their cell-phones from Western politicians. Twitter accounts explode around the Libyan hash-tag.”

2. (Internet, informal, metonymically)The hash sign itself, especially when used as part of a hashtag.

   “I sound like a shitty mother and wife. Or at the very least an inadequate wife and ungrateful mother–which is in stark contrast to the image I try to portray on Instagram. Hashtag happy life. Hashtag beautiful family. Hashtag blessed.”

   “You're perpetually stoned, aren't you? Hashtag four twenty four seven.”

   “The Occam’s razor explanation is that he’s just hashtag-blessed with the kind of lustrous lashes that many people spend a lot of money (and rack up a lot of Sephora Beauty Insider points) trying to get.”

verb

1. (Internet, ambitransitive)To label (a message) with a hashtag.

   “The photo-sharing site was riddled with fake accounts that liked, followed and hashtagged out the wazoo. Then came the great “Instagram Rapture,” Instagram’s pledge last December to clean out the fake accounts and do “everything possible to keep Instagram free from the fake and spammy accounts that plague much of the web.””