dag

plural dags

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.
2. A dangling lock of sheep’s wool matted with dung.

   1859-1865, Hensleigh Wedgwood, A Dictionary of English Etymology Daglocks, clotted locks hanging in dags or jags at a sheep's tail.

   5 more examples

   To see the dunged folds of dag-tayled sheepe.

   1597-98 1597–8, Joseph_Hall_(bishop) Joseph Hall Satires, Book 5, number 1

   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.

   1998, Wool: Volume 8, Issue 10, as published by the Massey Wool Association

   The development of dags first requires some faeces to adhere to wool, but this is only the initial step in accumulation.

   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

   […] and the use of tanniferous forages may affect faecal consistency, reducing the formation of dag (faeces-coated wool).

   2004, Mette Vaarst, Animal health and welfare in organic agriculture, page 323

   [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.

   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

present singular third person dags · participle present dagging · participle past dagged · past dagged

1. To shear the hindquarters of a sheep in order to remove dags or prevent their formation.

   Blade shearers could shear, crutch, mules or dag sheep anywhere they were needed.

   2007, Graeme R. Quick, Remarkable Australian Farm Machines: Ingenuity on the Land

   1 more example

   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.

   2010 January 29, Emma Partridge, “Richie Foster a cut above the rest”, in Stock Journal

2. transitiveTo cut or slash the edge of a garment into dags
3. dialectalobsoleteTo sully; to make dirty; to bemire.

   Vexing the baths with his dagg'd rout.

   a. 1661, B. Holyday, Juvenal's Satires

plural dags · alternative obsolete dagge

1. A skewer.
2. A spit, a sharpened rod used for roasting food over a fire.
3. obsoleteA dagger; a poniard.

   Even when my dag was levelled at his heart

   1515, Thomas Kyd, Arden of Feversham

   2 more examples

   Soon after this, however, there were brought into the country these old-time dags, useful weapons which rendered far easier the labors of men and of women. These were employed for many years, but later the company sent in an improved knife, more useful for skinning and for the other purposes of camp life, but not nearly so good for war.

   1899 May 6, “Old Hudson's Bay Dag”, in Forest and Stream, volume 52, number 18, page 347

   When we reached the poop-stairs an officer in a blue coat came forward jabbering some jargon; but the captain would have no parley with him, but flung his dag clean into the man's face, and over he went backwards— with his damned high heels in the air.

   1904, Robert Hugh Benson, By what Authority?, page 400

4. obsoleteA kind of large pistol.

   Powder! No, Sir; my dag shall be my dagger.

   1630, Thomas Dekker, The Whore of Babylon

   2 more examples

   The Spaniards discharged their dags, and hurt some.

   1563 March 30 (Gregorian calendar), John Foxe, Actes and Monuments of These Latter and Perillous Dayes, […], London: […] Iohn Day, […], →OCLC

   A sort of pistol, called a dag, was used about the same time as hand guns and harquebuts.

   1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons

5. The unbranched antler of a young deer.

present singular third person dags · participle present dagging · participle past dagged · past dagged · alternative obsolete dagge

1. transitiveTo skewer food, for roasting over a fire.

1. USinformalExpressing shock, awe or surprise; used as a general intensifier.

   Dag, yo.

   2002 December 2, Michael Chapman; Matthew Chapman, “Teen Girl Squad Issue #1”, in Homestar Runner, spoken by Strong Bad as What's Her Face (Matthew Chapman)

   1 more example

   "Oh hell, I might as well try 'em, this party is a drag "Oh dag" (Mmm) "I didn't mean for you to eat the whole bag"

   1999, “My fault”, Marshall Mathers (music)^([=https://genius.com/Eminem-my-fault-lyrics])

plural dags

1. AustraliaderogatoryslangOne who dresses unfashionably or without apparent care about appearance; someone who is not cool; a dweeb or nerd.

   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.

   2010 January 15, Michael Dwyer, “Talented dag plucks up the cool”, in The Age

   3 more examples

   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.

   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.

   2006 September 26, “Klancie Keough eliminated”, in TV Week

   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?

   2009 November 14, “Catherine Zeta - Hollywood's biggest dag?”, in Daily Telegraph

2. AustraliaNew ZealandobsoleteslangAn odd or eccentric person; someone who is a bit strange but amusingly so.

plural dags

1. A misty shower; dew.

   I write in a part of England where the vulgar invariably use shew for the preterite showed, &c. &c. "This morning, before the dag was off, I sew seed enow for this week, and then wed two beds", was the reply returned to me by my gardener, a few days ago.

   1872, Fitzedward Hall, Recent Exemplifications of False Philology

present singular third person dags · participle present dagging · participle past dagged · past dagged

1. UKdialectalTo be misty; to drizzle.

plural dags

1. graph theoryA directed acyclic graph; an ordered pair (V,E) such that E is a subset of some partial ordering relation on V.

plural dags

1. Irelandpronunciation spellingPronunciation spelling of dog.

   Mickey: Dags! D' ya like dags?

   2000, Guy Ritchie, Snatch, quoted in, Miguel Á. Bernal-Merino, Translation and Localisation in Video Games: Making Entertainment Software Global, Routledge →ISBN, page 68

   1 more example

   There it was again, that old Gaelic verb pronounced 'scriss,' that those involved in fighting talk apparently exuded on occasion. It could have been 'D'ya wanna buy a dag?' it was all the same.

   2014, John P Brady, Back to the Gaff, Roadside Fiction, →ISBN, page 131

plural dags

1. abbreviationellipsisfoodEllipsis of dag sandwich.

plural Dags

1. abbreviationellipsisEllipsis of Dagwood sandwich.

   Synonyms: Dag sandwich

plural DAGs

1. abbreviationacronymcountableinitialismuncountablelawAbbreviation of deputy attorney general.
2. abbreviationacronymcountableuncountablecomputerAcronym of directed acyclic graph.
3. USabbreviationcountableinitialismuncountablelawInitialism of defense acquisition guide.
4. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountablebiochemistryInitialism of diacylglycerol.