Dictionary

fag

Pronunciation

Noun

fag (plural fags)

(US, technical) In textile inspections, a rough or coarse defect in the woven fabric.
(UK, Ireland, Australia, colloquial, dated in US and Canada) A cigarette.
- 1968 January 25, The Bulletin, Oregon ↗,
  He′d Phase Out Fag Industry
  Los Angeles (UPI) - A UCLA professor has called for the phasing out of the cigarette industry by converting tobacco acres to other crops.
- 2001, Oliver Sacks, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood, Alfred A. Knopf (2001), 15,
  All of them, like my mother, were heavy smokers, and after warming themselves by the fire, they would sit on the sofa and smoke, lobbing their wet fag ends into the fire.
- 2011, Bill Marsh, Great Australian Shearing Stories, [http://books.google.com.au/books?id=oESItJKqXJkC&pg=PT18&dq=%22fag%22|%22fags%22+australia+-intitle:%22%22+-inauthor:%22%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=LG9LT9_BMoLvmAXCkeyyDg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false unnumbered page],
  So I started off by asking the shearers if they minded if I took a belly off while they were having a fag. Then after a while they were asking me. They′d say, ‘Do yer wanta take over fer a bit while I have a fag?’ And then I got better and I′d finish the sheep and they′d say ‘Christ, I haven′t finished me bloody fag yet, yer may as well shear anotherie.’
(UK, obsolete, colloquial) The worst part or end of a thing.

Synonyms

Translations

Noun

fag (plural fags)

(British, dated, colloquial) A chore: an arduous and tiresome task.
- 1818, Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey, 1992, Complete Works of Jane Austen, p. 123: ↗
  We are sadly off in the country; not but what we have very good shops in Salisbury, but it is so far to go—eight miles is a long way; Mr. Allen says it is nine, measured nine; but I am sure it cannot be more than eight; and it is such a fag—I come back tired to death.
(British, education, archaic, colloquial) A younger student acting as a servant for senior students.
- 1791, Richard Cumberland, The Observer, Vol. 4, page 67 ↗:
  I had the character at ſchool of being the very beſt fag that ever came into it.
- 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 18:
  A gang of fags was mobbing about by the notice-boards. They fell silent as he approached. He patted one of them on the head. ‘Pretty children,’ he sighed, digging into his waistcoat pocket and pulling out a handful of change. ‘Tonight you shall eat.’ Scattering the coins at their feet, he moved on.

Verb

fag (fags, present participle fagging; past fagged, past participle fagged)

(transitive, colloquial, used mainly in passive form) To make exhausted, tired out.
(intransitive, colloquial) To droop; to tire.
- ante 1829 G. Mackenzie, Lives, quoted in 1829, "Fag", entry in The London Encyclopaedia: Or, Universal Dictionary, Volume 9, page 12 ↗,
  Creighton with-held his force 'till the Italian began to fag, and then brought him to the ground.
(intransitive, British, education, archaic, colloquial) For a younger student to act as a servant for senior students in many British boarding schools.
(transitive, British, education, archaic, colloquial) To have (a younger student) act as a servant in this way.
(intransitive, British, archaic) To work hard, especially on menial chores.

Noun

fag (plural fags)

(chiefly, US, Canada, vulgar, usually offensive, sometimes affectionate) A homosexual man, especially (usually derogatory) an especially effeminate or unusual one.
- 1921 John Lind, The Female Impersonators ([https://web.archive.org/web/20130131071453/http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/historical_dictionary_of_american_slang/ Historical Documentation of American Slang] v. 1, A-G, edited by Jonathan E. Lighter (New York: Random House, 1994) page 716.
  Androgynes known as “fairies,” “fags,” or “brownies.”
(US, vulgar, offensive) An annoying person.
Why did you do that, you fag?

Synonyms

Translations

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