Find your perfect word!

Definition dag

Etymology 1

From Middle English dagge, of uncertain (probably Germanic) origin, cognate with (Middle) Dutch dag, dagge, dagh. The sense "dangling lock of wool, matted with dung" is also termed "daglock" (derived from the "hanging end" sense of "dag") or "daggle-lock" and some sources consider the sense a shortening of that longer word rather than a mere evolution of the "hanging end" sense.

Noun

dag (plural dags)

1. A hanging end or shred, in particular a long pointed strip of cloth at the edge of a piece of clothing, or one of a row of decorative strips of cloth that may ornament a tent, booth or fairground.
2. A dangling lock of sheep’s wool matted with dung.

Verb

dag (third-person singular simple present dags, present participle dagging, simple past and past participle dagged)

1. To shear the hindquarters of a sheep in order to remove dags or prevent their formation.
2. To daggle or bemire.

Etymology 2

From Old French dague (from Old Occitan dague, of uncertain origin, perhaps from Vulgar Latin *daca (“Dacian knife”), from the Roman province Dacia (roughly modern Romania); the ending is possibly the faintly pejorative -ard suffix, as in poignard (“dagger”)); cognate with dagger.

Noun

dag (plural dags)

1. A skewer.
2. A spit, a sharpened rod used for roasting food over a fire.
3. (obsolete) A dagger; a poniard.
4. (obsolete) A kind of large pistol.
5. The unbranched antler of a young deer.

Verb

dag (third-person singular simple present dags, present participle dagging, simple past and past participle dagged)

1. (transitive) To skewer food, for roasting over a fire
2. (transitive) To cut or slash the edge of a garment into dags

Etymology 3

Variation of dang. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Interjection

dag

1. (US, informal) Expressing shock, awe or surprise; used as a general intensifier.

Etymology 4

Back-formation from daggy.

Noun

dag (plural dags)

1. (Australia slang, New Zealand derogatory ) One who dresses unfashionably or without apparent care about appearance.

Etymology 5

Initialism for directed acyclic graph.

Noun

dag (plural dags)

1. (graph theory) A directed acyclic graph; an ordered pair ${\displaystyle (V,E)}$ such that ${\displaystyle E}$ is a subset of some partial ordering relation on ${\displaystyle V}$.