shaggy, a.
(ˈʃægɪ)
Also 6–7 shaggie, 8 shagy.
[f. shag n.1 + -y.
The altered form shackie, shacky a., appears in our quots. somewhat earlier.]
1. a. Covered with or having long coarse or bushy hair. Of persons: Unkempt.
| c 1590 Marlowe Jew of Malta iv. 1858 He sent a shaggy totter'd staring slaue. 1607 N. Field Woman a Weathercock ii. i. (1612) D 3, Wilde Virginia, Blacke Affricke, or the shaggy Scithia, Must send it ouer as a Merchandize Ere thou shew any heere. a 1612 B. Jonson Masque Oberon Wks. (1616) 978 Trap our shaggie thighs with bels. 1690 C. Nesse Hist. & Myst. O. & N. Test. I. 42 Some black shaggy dog. 1754 Gray Poesy 55 Shaggy forms o'er ice⁓built mountains roam. 1755 in Macgill Old Ross-sh. (1909) 169, 2 two-year-old she cattle and a shagy bull. 1822 Scott Nigel xvii, Shaggy, uncombed ruffians, whose enormous mustaches were turned back over their ears. 1848 Dickens Dombey ii, He was a strong, loose, round-shouldered, shuffling shaggy fellow. 1882 ‘Ouida’ In Maremma I. 151 A mounted shepherd on his wild and shaggy horse. |
b. Of a skin, or garment, etc.: Covered with coarse bushy hair.
| c 1611 Chapman Iliad xv. 282 Ioues huge and each-where shaggie shield. 1705 J. Philips Blenheim 408 While Volga's Stream Sends Opposite, in shaggy Armor clad, Her Borderers. 1790 Cowper Odyss. xvii. 107 Tunic and shaggy mantle. 1816 Galt Life B. West 94 A peasant dressed in shaggy skins. |
c. Of a textile material: Having a long, rough nap; rough or coarse in texture.
| 1664 Pepys Diary 11 Nov., Put on my new shaggy purple gown with gold buttons and loop lace. 1728 Pope Dunc. ii. 135 A shaggy tap'stry, worthy to be spread On Codrus' old, or Dunton's modern bed. 1831 Scott Ct. Rob. ii, A surcoat composed of strong shaggy silk, so woven as to exhibit, at a little distance, no inaccurate representation of a bear's hide. 1837 Whittock Bk. Trades (1842) 113 (Carpet-Weaver), But in Wilton, or other carpets that are required to be ‘shaggy’, the wires are made thin, and sharp at one end. |
d. Bot. and
Zool. Having or covered with rough or stiff hairs (hirsute) or long soft hairs (villous). Also in renderings of specific names, as
shaggy maple,
shaggy spunk.
| 1796 Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) I. 81 Shaggy (hirsutus), rough with stiff hairs. Ibid. II. 218 Blossom shaggy. 1802 Willich Dom. Encycl. IV. 455 The Shaggy Spunk, or Boletus hirsutus, a species of Mushroom. 1833 Penny Cycl. I. 78/2 Acer villosum, the shaggy maple. 1840 Loudon tr. Köllar's Treat. Insects 363 This beetle is somewhat shaggy and black. 1854 Pappe Silva Capensis (1862) 6 Flowers terminal on short, shaggy peduncles. Ibid. 14 Drupe shaggy. |
e. Phys.,
Path., etc. Bristling with hair-like processes.
shaggy chorion, that part of the chorion which develops long villous processes, and thus enters into the formation of the placenta, the rest of the chorion remaining smooth.
| 1799 Med. Jrnl. II. 2 Upon maceration in water for a certain time, it put on the usual shaggy appearance formed by the tubuli seminiferi. 1835–6 Todd's Cycl. Anat. I. 780/1 An epidermic layer..covering a thick and shaggy membrane. 1855 Ramsbotham Obstet. Med. 62 And imbed themselves in the semi-fluid deciduous secretion, like roots in the soil, these have been called the shaggy chorion. 1888 W. H. Dickinson in Lancet 24 Mar. 565/1 The Furred or Shaggy Tongue. Ibid., When there is great projection of the papillæ, so that these stand out distinctly, the term furred or shaggy represents this condition. 1898 Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 739 It's [i.e. the inflamed pericardium's] surface is covered with floating shaggy processes. |
f. transf. Of the earth, a hillside, etc.: Covered with a rough, tangled growth. Also of a comet: ‘Hairy’.
| 1591 Sylvester tr. Du Bartas i. ii. 407 And liberally the shaggy Earth [He will] adorn With Woods, and Buds of fruits, of flowers and corn. 1612 Drayton Poly-olb. xii. 524 Those fallow Deere, and huge-hancht Stags that graz'd Vpon her shaggy Heaths. 1653 Ramesey Astrol. Rest. iv. vi. 319 [Other comets] become shaggy and compassed as it were with hair or frindge round about. 1667 Milton P.L. iv. 224 A River Through the shaggie hill Pass'd underneath ingulft. 1780 G. Cumberland Landscapes (1793) 8 Nor less I joy, at parting day, to trace The sun-gilt forms of Enfield's shaggy chace. 1898 Watts-Dunton Aylwin ii. xiii, The little flower-beds looked shaggy, grass-grown, and uncared for. |
g. Having a rough surface.
shaggy metal: in the Cheshire salt mines, ‘porous clay in the side of the shaft, which admits the ingress of fresh water’ (
Cheshire Gloss. 1886).
| 1693 Evelyn De La Quint. Compl. Gard. II. 83 Some by growing Soft first, as many Pears do,..others by growing Dry and Shaggy, as most Musc-Pears do; all which are different ways Conducing to Rotteness and Destruction. 1811 H. Holland in Trans. Geol. Soc. I. 50 Where this [porous] structure of the clay occurs it goes by the name of the shaggy metal. 1813 Scott Rokeby iv. viii, A mantle long and loose he wore, Shaggy with ice, and stain'd with gore. 1849 Murchison Siluria xiii. 332 Chocolate-coloured porphyres..highly shaggy and amygdaloidal. 1856 A. Gray Man. Bot. 402 Fruit globular, its husk very thick: bark of old trunk shaggy, exfoliating in strips or plates. |
2. a. Of hair, etc.: Rough, coarse, tangled.
| 1638 Bp. R. Montagu Art. Enq. Norwich B 1 b, Doth he [your Minister] weare long shaggy haire? 1721 Mortimer Husb. (ed. 2) II. 78 Moss growing on Trees is of several sorts, cold and moist Ground produces a long shaggy, moist and dry Ground a short thick Moss. 1735 Somerville Chase iii. 256 Thy shaggy Mane. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth xiv, The bushy red hair and shaggy beard. 1829 Lytton Disowned iv, Eyebrows sage and shaggy. 1868 C. Gibbon R. Gray xxii, His short shaggy hair was shaggier than usual. 1901 T. J. Alldridge Sherbro xiv. 141 Her dress is of long shaggy fibre. |
b. Bot. shaggy hairs: see
quots. Cf. shag n.1| 1884 Bower & Scott De Bary's Phaner. 55 Shaggy hairs are thread-like bodies, consisting of two or many layers or rows of cells. Ibid. 56 The multiseriate shaggy hairs of the Melastomeæ. |
c. transf. Of a wood, trees, etc.: Resembling a rough growth of hair.
| 1789 Gilpin Wye 38 A woody hill..rudely hung with shaggy furniture. 1791 T. Newte Tour Eng. & Scot. 303 The rocks and shaggy wood that fringe that river. 1805 Scott Last Minstr. vi. ii, Land of brown heath and shaggy wood, Land of the mountain and the flood. 1890 A. J. C. Hare Story Life xxvi. (1900) VI. 193 A poor town hanging shaggy on the hillside. |
3. Comb., as
shaggy-bearded,
shaggy-bodied,
shaggy-chested,
shaggy-fleeced,
shaggy-footed,
shaggy-haired,
shaggy-legged,
shaggy-throated adjs.;
shaggy dog story, a lengthy tediously detailed story of an inconsequential series of events, more amusing to the teller than to his audience, or amusing only by its pointlessness; also
shaggy dog yarn, etc.;
shaggy (ink-)cap = next;
shaggy mane, an edible fungus,
Coprinus comatus (
Cent. Dict. Suppl.).
| 1861 L. L. Noble Icebergs 68 They were a..shaggy-bearded set. |
| 1593 Nashe Christ's T. Wks. (Grosart) IV. 173 A grizly shaggy-bodied deuill. |
| 1894 M. C. Cooke Edible & Poisonous Mushrooms 57 Shaggy Caps... This is one of the best of edibles, and common enough everywhere. 1979 Guardian 31 Oct. 14/1 The delightful pleasures of Shaggy Cap soup or Lawyer's Wig stew. |
| 1922 Joyce Ulysses 510 Ben Jumbo Dollard, rubicund,..shaggychested, shockmaned,..stands forth. |
| [1945 D. Low in N.Y. Times Mag. 4 Feb. 40/1 The logical lunacy of ‘Shaggy Dog’.] 1946 Coll. Shaggy Dog Stories facing p. 1 Stories of the Shaggy Dog variety are essentially tales to be told rather than read. 1947 Beat Apr. 6/3 Here's one of my favourite ‘shaggy dog’ stories. 1952 A. R. K. Barnard in A. Redman Somewhat ‘Shaggy’ 4 The comparatively recent type of story—the ‘Shaggy Dog’ yarn. 1952 Koestler Arrow in Blue i. viii. 68 The people of Budapest have a peculiar shaggy-dog kind of humour. 1958 Listener 16 Oct. 623/1 It was a shaggy-dog story about a small-town worthy who shams madness to avoid paying bills. 1972 P. Ruell Red Christmas xi. 102 He seemed to be in the middle of an autobiographical shaggy-dog story. |
| 1879 Sala in Daily Tel. 15 May, The black-faced shaggy-fleeced sheep. |
| a 1593 Marlowe Hero & L. i. 114 Wretched Ixions shaggie footed race. |
| 1610 G. Fletcher Christ's Tri. ii. xlvi, Foolish Sheapheards, that wear woont esteem, Your God all rough, and shaggy-hair'd to bee. 1866 Geo. Eliot F. Holt II. xvi. 15 The shaggy-haired, cravatless image of Felix Holt. 1974 L. Deighton Spy Story i. 14 A shaggy-haired giant, complete with kilt. |
| 1840 Carlyle in Froude Life in Lond. (1884) I. 190 A fine..shaggy-headed man is Alfred [Tennyson]. |
| 1953 J. Ramsbottom Mushrooms & Toadstools Pl. 22 (caption) Shaggy Ink-Cap..often in enormous numbers on made-up ground. 1970 J. Webster Introd. Fungi ii. iv. 311 Coprinus comatus is a large terrestrial species (the shaggy ink-cap or lawyer's wig) which is edible. |
| 1822 Hortus Anglicus II. 128 Shaggy-leaved Toad Flax. |
| 1927 D. H. Lawrence Etruscan Places (1932) i. 16 He grins and drinks wine, and immediately one sees again the shaggy-legged faun. |
| [1885 J. A. Palmer Mushrooms Amer. Pl. II (caption) Shaggy-Maned Mushroom.] 1895 W. H. Gibson Our Edible Toadstools & Mushrooms 28 The Shaggy-mane..is conspicuously even⁓gilled, and is a decided delicacy. 1976 National Observer (U.S.) 13 Mar. 19/2 Now is the time of the shaggy manes and field mushrooms. |
| 1946 R. S. Thomas Stones of Field 17 Thunder-browed and shaggy-throated All the men were there. |