Dictionary
Thesaurus
Reference
Translate
Web
Popular Searches
on Ask.com
Synonyms
Nearby Entries
fag - 10 dictionary results

fag

1  [fag] verb, fagged, fag⋅ging, noun
Use fag in a Sentence
–verb (used with object)
1. to tire or weary by labor; exhaust (often fol. by out): The long climb fagged us out.
2. British. to require (a younger public-school pupil) to do menial chores.
3. Nautical. to fray or unlay the end of (a rope).
–verb (used without object)
4. Chiefly British. to work until wearied; work hard: to fag away at French.
5. British Informal. to do menial chores for an older public-school pupil.
–noun
6. Slang. a cigarette.
7. a fag end, as of cloth.
8. a rough or defective spot in a woven fabric; blemish; flaw.
9. Chiefly British. drudgery; toil.
10. British Informal. a younger pupil in a British public school required to perform certain menial tasks for, and submit to the hazing of, an older pupil.
11. a drudge.
Origin:
1425–75; late ME fagge broken thread in cloth, loose end (of obscure orig.); sense development appar.: drooping end > to droop, tire > to make weary > drudgery, drudge (cf. relationship of flag 1 to flag 3 ); (def. 6) a shortening of fag end (a butt, hence a cigarette)

fag

2  [fag]
–noun Slang: Disparaging and Offensive.
faggot 2 .
Origin:
1920–25, Americanism; by shortening

Related forms:
faggish, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To fag
fag 1   (fāg)   
n.  
    1. A student at a British public school who is required to perform menial tasks for a student in a higher class.
    2. A drudge.
  2. Chiefly British Fatiguing or tedious work; drudgery.
v.   fagged, fag·ging, fags

v.   intr.
  1. To work to exhaustion; toil.
  2. To function as the servant of another student in a British public school.
v.   tr.
To exhaust; weary: Four hours on the tennis court fagged me out.

[From fag, to droop (obsolete), perhaps from Middle English fagge; see fag end.]
fag 2   (fāg)   
n.   Slang
A cigarette.

[Short for fag end.]
fag 3   (fāg)   
n.   Offensive Slang
Used as a disparaging term for a homosexual man.

[Short for faggot2.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source

Fag

Fag\n. A knot or coarse part in cloth. [Obs.]

Fag

Fag\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Fagged; p. pr. & vb. n. Fagging.] [Cf. LG. fakk wearied, weary, vaak slumber, drowsiness, OFries. fai, equiv. to f[=a]ch devoted to death, OS. f?gi, OHG. feigi, G. feig, feige, cowardly, Icel. feigr fated to die, AS. f?ge, Scot. faik, to fail, stop, lower the price; or perh. the same word as E. flag to droop.]

1. To become weary; to tire.

Creighton withheld his force till the Italian began to fag. --G. Mackenzie.

2. To labor to wearness; to work hard; to drudge.

Read, fag, and subdue this chapter. --Coleridge.

3. To act as a fag, or perform menial services or drudgery, for another, as in some English schools.

To fag out, to become untwisted or frayed, as the end of a rope, or the edge of canvas.

Fag

Fag\, v. t. 1. To tire by labor; to exhaust; as, he was almost fagged out.

2. Anything that fatigues. [R.]

It is such a fag, I came back tired to death. --Miss Austen.

Brain fag. (Med.) See Cerebropathy.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
Cite This Source
Language Translation for : fag
Spanish: faena, lata,
German: die Schinderei,
Japanese: 骨折り仕事
More Translations »

fag  (v.)
"to droop, decline, tire," 1530, apparently an alteration of flag in its verbal sense of "droop." Trans. sense of "to make (someone or something) fatigued" is first attested 1826.

fag  (n.)
British slang for "cigarette" (originally, especially, the butt of a smoked cigarette), 1888, probably from fag-end "extreme end, loose piece" (1613), from fag "loose piece" (1486), perhaps related to fag (v.).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
Search another word or see fag on Thesaurus | Reference