fag-end
(ˌfægˈɛnd)
[f. fag n.2 + end.]
1. a. The last part of a piece of cloth; the part that hangs loose, often of coarser texture than the rest.
| 1721–1800 in Bailey. 1778 Love Feast 21 Like base Fag-Ends will surely be cut off. 1809 Tomlin Law Dict. s.v. Fag, The fag-end..where the weaver.. works up the worst part of his materials. 1858 in Simmonds Dict. Trade. |
b. Of a rope: An untwisted end.
| 1775 in Ash. 1808 Whitbread Sp. in Ho. Commons 22 Jan., Sooner than have surrendered the fag end of a cotton rope to England. 1840 R. Dana Bef. Mast. xxii. 66 There was no rust, no dirt..no fag ends of ropes. |
2. transf. The last part or remnant of anything, after the best has been used; the extreme end, e.g. of a portion of space or time, a collection of persons, a written composition, volume, etc.
| 1613 R. Tailor Hog lost Pearl in Dodsley (1780) VI. 329 There's the fag-end of a leg of mutton. a 1656 Bp. Hall Revelation Unrev. §1 The fag-end of this last century. 1677 Plot Oxfordsh. 5 This wind was the fag-end of a Hurricane. a 1687 Cotton Martial i. ii. (1695) 3 Where now a goodly terrace does extend..Was but the court's fag and expiring end. 1691 Wood Ath. Oxon. II. 174 The turning out of the Fag-end of that Parliament. 1729 Berkeley Skel. Serm. vi. Wks. IV. 640 The first fruits..to the devil, the fag-end, when faculty for good and evil is gone, to God. 1747 Hooson Miner's Dict. N j, The Fagg ends of a certain Lordship. 1765 Sterne Tr. Shandy (1802) VIII. xxxv. 199 To be wove into the fag end of the eighth volume. 1844 Dickens Mart. Chuz. xlii, To..hum the fag-end of a song. 1853 C. Bede Verdant Green iv, The old Kidderminster carpet..burnt into holes with the fag-ends of cigars. 1882 M. E. Braddon Mt. Royal I. viii. 241 Vegetating at the fag-end of England. |
Hence fag-ˈender.
| 1828 Examiner 21 Sept. 618/1 Clinging to the old rubbish of the worn-out Cabinet of former days—the fag-enders of a hated party. 1924 J. M. Murry Voyage vii. 121 ‘There are some religious people left.’ ‘I don't think she'd deny that. She was only speaking of people like us—the fag-enders,’ said Doherty. |
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Add: [2.] b. spec. The butt of a smoked cigarette, a cigarette-end. Cf. fag n.4
| [1853: see sense 2 a.] 1923 J. Manchon Le Slang 118 Fag-end man, ramasseur de mégots. 1933 W. Greenwood Love on Dole ii. i. 102 He was..lounging at the street corner with the rest of the dole birds feeling in his pocket for a fag-end that wasn't there. 1960 J. R. Ackerley We think the World of You 22, I 'ad a dog once what ate up all the fag-ends in the street. 1987 Sunday Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 23 Aug. 51/2 One [gardener] insisted that if we boiled up fag ends, strained them, and used the liquid in a spray, greenfly wouldn't trouble us. |