▪ I. dag, n.1
(dæg)
In 4–5 dagge.
[Of uncertain origin: the same senses are partly expressed by tag.]
† 1. A pendant pointed portion of anything; one of the pointed or laciniated divisions made by deeply slashing or cutting the lower margin of a cloak, gown, or other garment, as was done for ornament in the 15th c. Obs.
| 1399 Langl. Rich. Redeles 193 Dryue out þe dagges and all þe duche cotis. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 111 Dagge of clothe, fractillus. 1617 Minsheu Ductor, Dagge or ragge of cloth. |
† 2. A tag or aglet of a lace, shoe-latchet, or the like; = aglet 1, 2. Obs.
| c 1400 Rom. Rose 7262 Grey clothis..fretted fulle of tatar⁓wagges [= dags, sense 1] And high shoos knopped with dagges. 1616 Bullokar, Dagges, latchets cut out of leather. |
3. a. One of the locks of wool clotted with dirt about the hinder parts of a sheep; a ‘clag’; = dagging, dag-lock.
[The relationship of this to the prec. senses, and to dag v.1, is not clear.]
| 1731 Bailey, Dagges..the Skirts of a Fleece cut off. 1887 Kentish Gloss., Dag, a lock of wool that hangs at the tail of a sheep and draggles in the dirt. Dag-wool, refuse wool; cut off in trimming the sheep. |
b. Comb. dag-boy, -cutter, -man, -pick v., -picker (see quots.). Austral. and N.Z.
| 1913 A. I. Carr Country Work & Life in N.Z. vi. 15 The dag cutter..has a seat handy and with a pair of shears cuts off all the wool he can, which he throws into another bin. 1933 Bulletin (Sydney) 8 Feb. 21, I work and whistle on my own..Dag-pickin' all day long. 1933 L. G. D. Acland in Press (Christchurch, N.Z.) 7 Oct. 15/7 The dags are afterwards gone through by a dag-picker or dag-boy, who cuts out any wool worth saving. 1958 New Statesman 23 Aug. 218/3 They were given jobs as..dag-men, which implied following around any one of 20,000 sheep and snipping off dung. 1965 [see dagger n.2 b]. |
4. A ‘character’, an extraordinary person, a ‘tough’ but amusing person (see also quot. 1941). Austral. and N.Z. slang.
| 1916 Anzac Book 47 Yes; 'Enessy was a dag if ever there was one! 1931 V. Palmer Separate Lives 222 Chook chuckled suddenly... ‘Ain't he a dag?’ 1940 F. Sargeson Man & Wife (1944) 64 Struth he was a dag, Bill was. 1941 Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 22 Dag, an amusing or eccentric person. Whence, dag adj., good, excellent: a dag at, expert at. 1945 N.Z. Geographer I. 35 He was a tough old dag, and no mistake. 1949 E. de Mauny Huntsman in Career i. 33 Scotty's a bit of a dag, isn't he? 1970 D. M. Davin Not Here, Not Now ii. ix. 115 Gerald seemed to have become a bit of a dag since the old days. |
▸ Austral. slang (depreciative). An unadventurous, staid, or unfashionable person; (esp. among schoolchildren) a socially inept or awkward person.
| 1966 S. J. Baker Austral. Lang. (ed. 2) 289 Dag, a person who is unenterprising, without courage. (Quite distinct from the old use of ‘dag’ for a ‘hard case’ or ‘character’.) 1975 National Times (Sydney) 13 Jan. 40 The surf has a glamour the ordinary boy lacks. ‘They're dags,’ says Colleen Field, of Kellyville, of ordinary boys. Despite the repulsive tag, dags are the sort of boy every mother would like her daughter to bring home. 1987 K. Lette Girls' Night Out (1989) 15 Don't be a dag. Control the impulse to call. 1991 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 18 Sept. 29/7 Maynard first realised he was a dag at high school in Newcastle when the other kids told him so. |
▪ II. † dag, n.2 Obs.
[Derivation unknown.
Referred by some to F. dague a dagger; but no trace has been found of any connexion between the two words.]
1. A kind of heavy pistol or hand-gun formerly in use.
| 1561 Diurn. Occurrents (Bannatyne Club) 66 Thay..schot furth at the said servandis ane dag. 1587 Harrison England ii. xvi. (1877) i. 283 To ride with a case of dags at his sadle bow. 1598 R. Barckley Felic. Man (1631) 252 Because the dagge being overcharged brake..he draweth his dagger to stabbe him. 1602 Warner Albion's Eng. ix. xliv. (1612) 211 By wars, wiles, witchcrafts, daggers, dags. 1642 Laud Wks. (1853) III. 461, I heard a great crack, as loud as the report of a small dag. 1725 New Cant. Dict., Dag, a Gun. 1849 Grant Kirkaldy of G. xxiv. 283 The captain rushed upon Lennox and shot him through the back with a dag. 1881 Greener Gun 61 A chiselled Italian dagg manufactured by one of the Comminazzo family about 1650. |
2. attrib. and Comb.
| a 1568 Def. Crissell Sandelandis 53 in Sempill Ballates (1872) 234 Snapwark, adew, fra dagmen dow nocht stand. 1587 Fleming Contn. Holinshed III. 1409/2 The dag was bought..of one Adrian Mulan a dag-maker dwelling in east Smithfield. 1589 R. Harvey Pl. Perc. (1860) 33 A Dag case may be as good now and then as a case of Dags. 1721 Wodrow Hist. Ch. Scot. (1829) II. ii. ix. 250 Alexander Logan, Dagmaker in Leith Wynd. |
[The sense ‘dagger’ given by Johnson (without quotation), and repeated in later dictionaries (in Century Dict. with erroneous quotation), appears to be a mere mistake, due to misapprehension of the frequent 16–17th c. collocation ‘dag and dagger’ in descriptions of personal accoutrement. Sense 3 in Century Dict. ‘a stab or thrust with a dagger’, is a blunder due to misreading of Minsheu.]
▪ III. dag, n.3
(dæg)
[a. F. dague dagger, also the first horn of a young stag, and in some technical senses. Sense 2 is not found in French.]
1. The simple straight pointed horn of a young stag.
| 1859 Todd Cycl. Anat. V. 517/2 These processes acquire in the second year the form of..dags. 1861 Hulme tr. Moquin-Tandon ii. iii. 181 At first the new horns [of the stag] are simple protuberances, and are known by the name of ‘dags’. |
2. A pointed piece of metal, etc.; a pin or bolt.
| 1727 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Bridge, You must so joint the Timber, as..to resemble an Arch of Stone..the Joints ought to be..strongly shut together with Cramps and Dags of Iron. 1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. (1807) II. 598 The upper pair [of rollers] being stuck with coggs and dags. |
3. dial. (See quots.)
| a. 1863 Barnes Dorset Dialect, Dag, a small projecting stump of a branch. |
| b. 1880 W. Cornwall Gloss., Dag, a mining tool; an axe. |
▪ IV. dag, n.4 dial.
(dæg)
[app. of Norse origin: cf. ON. dögg, gen. daggar, pl. daggir, dew, Swed. dagg (Norw. dogg, Da. dug) = Goth. *daggwa-, OTeut. *dauwo-, OLG. dauw, OE. deaw, dew.]
1. Dew.
| 1674–91 Ray S. & E.C. Words 95 Dag, Dew upon the Grass. 1876 S. Warwicksh. Gloss., Dag, dew. ‘There's been a nice flop of dag.’ |
2. a. A thin or gentle rain. b. A wet fog, a mist. c. A heavy shower (Ayrshire).
| 1808 in Jamieson. 1825 Brockett N.C. Words, Dag, a drizzling rain. |
▪ V. dag, n.5 dial. or slang.
(dæg)
[perh. altered from darg (one's) task.]
A feat of skill; chiefly pl., esp. in doing dags (see quots.).
| 1879 N. & Q. 5th Ser. XII. 128/1 ‘I'll do you (or your) dags.’—An expression used by children of young, and sometimes of older, growth, meaning, ‘I'll do something that you cannot do.’ 1886 F. T. Elworthy W. Som. Word-Bk. s.v., To ‘set a dag’ is to perform some feat in such a way as to challenge imitation... There's a dag for you—do it if you can. 1886 Fun (Farmer), He was very fond of what, in schoolboy days, we used to call doing dags. 1898 Daily News 4 Oct. 6/3 What does your entertainment principally consist of?.. Doing ‘dags’ to make the people laugh. 1902 Windsor Mag. June 114/1 Wearing it in your hat shows that you don't funk me. It's doing my dags to touch you. |
▪ VI. dag, v.1
[Connected with dag n.1 The senses have no connexion with each other.]
† 1. trans. To cut the edge of (a garment) into long pointed jags; to slash, vandyke. Obs.
| c 1386 Chaucer Pars. T. ¶344 Costlewe furring in here gownes..so moche daggyng of scheris. Ibid. ¶347 Suche pounsed and daggid clothing. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. xxiii. 143 Let dagge hus cloþes. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 112 Daggyn, fractillo. 1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. ccxxvi. 233 Short clothes and streyte wastyd dagged and kyt. 1523 Skelton Garl. Laurel 630 Raggid and daggid & cunnyngly cut. |
2. a. To clog with dirt, bemire, daggle, bedraggle. Obs. exc. dial. (Cf. dag n.1 3.)
| 1484 Caxton æsop iii. xvii, Al to-fowled and dagged. a 1529 Skelton El. Rummyng 123 Wyth theyr heles dagged, Theyr kyrtelles all to-iagged. 1530 Palsgr. 445/2 Indede, damoysell, you be dagged..vous estes crottée. 1611 Cotgr. s.v. Archediacre, Crotte en Archediacre, dagd vp to the hard heeles (for so were the Archdeacons in old time euer woont to be, by reason of their frequent..Visitations). a 1661 B. Holyday Juvenal 136 Vexing the baths with his dagg'd rout. 1869 Lonsdale Gloss., Dag..(2) To trail or dirty in the mire, to bedaub, to daggle. 1879 G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Word-bk., Dag..to trail in the wet or dirt. |
b. intr. To daggle or trail in the dirt or wet.
| 1869 Lonsdale Gloss., Dag v. i. 1880 W. Cornwall Gloss. s.v. Dagging, ‘That tree is dagging with fruit.’ ‘Her dress is dagging in the mud.’ |
3. Farming. To cut off the ‘dags’ or locks of dirty wool from (sheep); the usual word in Australia and N.Z. (Cf. dag n.1 3.)
| 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), To Dag sheep, to cut off the Skirts of the Fleece. 1887 Kentish Gloss., Dag, to remove the dags or clots of wool, dirt, etc. from between the hind legs of sheep. 1889 Williams & Reeves Colonial Couplets 9 Dagging the hoggets, or drafting the rams. 1923 W. Perry Sheep Farming in N.Z. vi. 73 The ewes should also be dagged..before turning the rams in. 1965 J. S. Gunn Terminology Shearing Industry i. 20 Dag, wool mixed with dung, dirt, or other rubbish, hanging from the sheep. To ‘dag’ is to remove this wool with ‘dagging shears’. |
▪ VII. † dag, v.2 Obs.
[Related to F. dague dagger (13th c. in Littré): cf. also 16th c. F. daguer to strike with a dague or dagger; but the latter is not the source of the Eng. verb. See also dagger.]
trans. To pierce or stab, with or as with a pointed weapon.
| ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 2102 Dartes the Duche-mene daltene aȝaynes, With derfe dynttez of dede, daggesthurghe scheldez. Ibid. 3750 Derfe dynttys they dalte with daggande sperys. 1639 Horn & Rob. Gate Lang. Unl. lxiv. §668 Remorse..pierceth and daggeth guilty persons with the anguish of a galled conscience. 1794 A. Gallatin in J. A. Stevens Life iv. (1884) 95 One Ross of Lancaster..half drew a dagger he wore..and swore any man who uttered such sentiments ought to be dagged. |
▪ VIII. † dag, v.3 Obs.
[f. dag n.2]
trans. and intr. To shoot with a dag or hand-gun.
| a 1572 Knox Hist. Ref. Wks. (1846) I. 87 Thei schote spearis and dagged arrowis, whare the cumpanyes war thikest. c 1580 J. Hooker Life Sir P. Carew, They soe dagged at these loopes, that sundrye of theyme within were slayne. |
▪ IX. dag, v.4 dial.
(dæg)
[app. of Norse origin: cf. dag n.4 and ON. döggva, Swed. dagga to bedew. See also deg.]
1. trans. To sprinkle, to wet with sprinkling.
| 1855 Robinson Whitby Gloss., Dag, to sprinkle with water. 1877 Holderness Gloss., Dag, to sprinkle. ‘Dag cawsey afoor thoo sweeps it!’ 1879 G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Word-bk., Dag, to sprinkle clothes with water preparatory to mangling or ironing. |
2. intr. To drizzle.
| 1825 Brockett N.C. Words, Dag, to drizzle. |