Dag

Pronunciation

• IPA: /dæɡ/
• Rhymes: -æɡ

From Old English dagge, of uncertain (probably Germanic) origin, cognate with (Middle) Dutch dag, dagge, dagh.

Full definition of dag

Noun

1. A hanging end or shred, in particular a long pointed strip of cloth at the edge of a piece of clothing, or one of a row of decorative strips of cloth that may ornament a tent, booth or fairground.

From daglock or daggle-lock.

Noun

1. A dangling lock of sheep’s wool matted with dung.
• WedgwoodDaglocks, clotted locks hanging in dags or jags at a sheep's tail.
• 1998, Wool: Volume 8, Issue 10, as published by the Massey Wool Association:He was one of the first significant private buyers of wool in New Zealand, playing a major part in bringing respectability to what at first was a very diverse group. He pioneered the pelletising of dag waste.
• 1999, G. C. Waghorn, N. G. Gregory, S. E. Todd, and R. Wesselink, Dags in sheep; a look at faeces and reasons for dag formation, published in the Proceedings of the New Zealand Grassland Association 61, on pages 43–49:The development of dags first requires some faeces to adhere to wool, but this is only the initial step in accumulation.
• 2004, Mette Vaarst, Animal health and welfare in organic agriculture, page 323:... and the use of tanniferous forages may affect faecal consistency, reducing the formation of dag (faeces-coated wool).
• 2006, in the compilation of the Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture, volume 46, issues 1-5, published by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (Australia), on page 7:Researchers note that free pellets are characteristic of healthy sheep and that if sheep consistently produced free pellets, wool staining and dag formation would not occur.

Synonyms

• daglock, taglock
• daggings
• dung tag
• 1989, Paula Simmons, Raising Sheep the Modern Way, revised edition, Storey Communications Inc., Pownal Vermont, page 212Remove dung tags, and do not tie them in with the fleece.

Derived terms

• daggy

Verb

1. To shear the hindquarters of a sheep in order to remove dags or prevent their formation.
• 2007, Graeme R. Quick, Remarkable Australian Farm Machines: Ingenuity on the Land,Blade shearers could shear, crutch, mules or dag sheep anywhere they were needed.
• 2010 January 29, Emma Partridge, Stock Journal, Richie Foster a cut above the rest,After learning how to crutch at 13, he could dag 400 sheep in a day by the spring of 1965 and earned himself more than just a bit of pocket money.
2. To daggle or bemire.

From Old French dague (from Old Provencal dague, of uncertain origin, perhaps from Vulgar Latin *daca ("Dacian knife"), from the Roman province Dacia (roughly modern Romania); the ending is possibly the faintly pejorative -ard suffix, as in poignard 'dagger'); cognate with dagger.

Noun

1. A skewer.
2. A spit, a sharpened rod used for roasting food over a fire.
3. (obsolete) A dagger; a poniard.
4. (obsolete) A kind of large pistol.
• FoxeThe Spaniards discharged their dags, and hurt some.
• GroseA sort of pistol, called dag, was used about the same time as hand guns and harquebuts.
5. The unbranched antler of a young deer.

Verb

1. (transitive) To skewer food, for roasting over a fire
2. (transitive) To cut or slash the edge of a garment into dags

Variation of dang

Interjection

1. (US, informal) Expressing shock, awe or surprise; used as a general intensifier.

Back-formation from {{3}}

Noun

1. (Australia slang, New Zealand derogatory slang) One who dresses unfashionably or without apparent care about appearance.
• 2004 July 25, Debbie Kruger, Melbourne Weekly Magazine, All the World's a Stage,Now, wide-eyed and unfashionably excited ("I’m such a dag!" she remarks several times), she has the leading role of Viola in the Bell Shakespeare Company’s production of Twelfth Night, opening on August 10 at the Victorian Arts Centre Playhouse.
• 2006 September 26, TV Week, Klancie Keough eliminated,What did you think about Mark calling you a dag?To me a dag is a person who doesn't have a lot of pride in their appearance or the way they present themselves — the way they sing and how they hold themselves basically. But it didn't really bother me. He said, "You're such a dag, you're cool." I took it as "you're a laidback person". The way they cut it and edited it made it sound on TV like I was grumpy about it, but I wasn't. It was pretty funny how it came across.
• 2009 November 14, Daily Telegraph (Australia), Catherine Zeta - Hollywood's biggest dag?,SHE is one of Hollywood's most beautiful leading ladies and has access to any fashion designers, so then why is Catherine Zeta-Jones dressing like a bag lady?
• 2010 January 15, Michael Dwyer, The Age, Talented dag plucks up the cool,A graduate of film studies in New York, May has had a hand in editing two of his three videos. Each casts him as a bespectacled dag in a world of glamour.

Related terms

• daggy (adj)

Synonyms

• dork, loser, nerd

Usage notes

May be used as form of endearment, perhaps with the intention of indicating fellowship or sympathy with regard to apparent rejection of societal norms.

Initialism for directed acyclic graph.

Noun

1. (graph theory) A directed acyclic graph; an ordered pair $(V,\; E)$ such that $$

Of Scandinavian origin; compare Swedish dagg. See dew.

Noun

1. A misty shower; dew.

Verb

1. (UK, dialect) To be misty; to drizzle.

Anagrams

• GAD, Gad, gad, GDA