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dag

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dag¹

  • /dæɡ/

Sounds like DAG · Rhymes with -æɡ

Where it comes from

From Middle English dagge, of uncertain (probably Germanic) origin, cognate with Middle Dutch dag, dagge, dagh (modern Dutch dag, dagge). Compare French dague (“spiked end of a whipping rope”). The sense “dangling lock of wool, matted with dung” (originally from the dialect of Kent) 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 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. To see the dunged folds of dag-tayled sheepe.

Similar: daglock, taglock, dagging, dung tag

verb dags · dagging · dagged

  1. To shear the hindquarters of a sheep in order to remove dags or prevent their formation. Blade shearers could shear, crutch, mules or dag sheep anywhere they were needed.
  2. transitive To cut or slash the edge of a garment into dags
  3. dialectal, obsolete To sully; to make dirty; to bemire. Vexing the baths with his dagg'd rout.

dag²

  • /dæɡ/

Sounds like DAG · Rhymes with -æɡ

Where it comes from

From Old French dague (from Old Occitan daga, 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, which see for more. The verb (rare but attested from c. 1400) is likely influenced by back-formation from dagger.

noun dags · dagge

  1. A skewer.
  2. A spit, a sharpened rod used for roasting food over a fire.
  3. obsolete A dagger; a poniard. Even when my dag was levelled at his heart
  4. obsolete A kind of large pistol. The Spaniards discharged their dags, and hurt some.
  5. The unbranched antler of a young deer.

verb dags · dagging · dagged · dagge

  1. transitive To skewer food, for roasting over a fire.

dag³

  • /dæɡ/

Sounds like DAG · Rhymes with -æɡ

Where it comes from

N-less (or nonnasal) variant of dang, a euphemism for damn.

interjection

  1. US, informal Expressing shock, awe or surprise; used as a general intensifier. "Oh hell, I might as well try 'em, this party is a drag "Oh dag" (Mmm) "I didn't mean for you to eat the whole bag"

dag⁴

  • /dæɡ/

Sounds like DAG · Rhymes with -æɡ

Where it comes from

Perhaps a back-formation from daggy, or, a specialised sense of British dialect dag, a daring feat amongst boys.

noun dags

  1. Australia, derogatory, slang One who dresses unfashionably or without apparent care about appearance; someone who is not cool; a dweeb or nerd. 2004 July 25, Debbie Kruger, Melbourne Weekly Magazine, All the World's a Stage, Now, wide-eyed and unfashionably excited ("I’m such a dag!" she remarks several times), she has the leading role of Viola in the Bell Shakespeare Company’s production of Twelfth Night, opening on August 10 at the Victor
  2. Australia, New Zealand, obsolete, slang An odd or eccentric person; someone who is a bit strange but amusingly so.

Similar: dirtball, scruffbag, slob

dag⁵

  • /dæɡ/

Sounds like DAG · Rhymes with -æɡ

Where it comes from

Of North Germanic origin, probably to Old Norse dag (“drizzle, haze, mist, dew”); compare Old Swedish dag, Swedish dagg (“dew”), vs Old Swedish dug (“drizzle”) Swedish dugg (“drizzle”). Doublet of dew.

noun dags

  1. A misty shower; dew. I write in a part of England where the vulgar invariably use shew for the preterite showed, &c. &c. "This morning, before the dag was off, I sew seed enow for this week, and then wed two beds", was the reply returned to me by my gardener, a few days ago.

verb dags · dagging · dagged

  1. UK, dialectal To be misty; to drizzle.

dag⁶

  • /dæɡ/

Sounds like DAG · Rhymes with -æɡ

Where it comes from

Initialism of directed acyclic graph.

noun dags

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

dag⁷

  • /dæɡ/

Sounds like DAG · Rhymes with -æɡ

noun dags

  1. Ireland, pronunciation spelling Pronunciation spelling of dog Mickey: Dags! D' ya like dags?

dag⁸

  • /dæɡ/

Sounds like DAG · Rhymes with -æɡ

Where it comes from

Clipping of dagwood.

noun dags

  1. abbreviation, ellipsis Ellipsis of dag sandwich

Dag⁹

Where it comes from

Clipping of Dagwood.

noun Dags

  1. abbreviation, ellipsis Ellipsis of Dagwood sandwich

    Similar: Dag sandwich

DAG10

Where it comes from

Abbreviation.

noun DAGs

  1. abbreviation, acronym, countable, initialism, uncountable Abbreviation of deputy attorney general
  2. abbreviation, acronym, countable, uncountable Acronym of directed acyclic graph
  3. US, abbreviation, countable, initialism, uncountable Initialism of defense acquisition guide
  4. abbreviation, countable, initialism, uncountable Initialism of diacylglycerol

Thesaurus

noun

Similar: daglock, taglock, dagging, dung tag

noun

Similar: dirtball, scruffbag, slob

Translations

Every language

noun one who dresses unfashionably or without apparent care

Русскийнеряха nerjaxa

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Cite this
MLA

"dag." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/dag. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

dag. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/dag

Chicago

"dag." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/dag.

BibTeX
@misc{dag_2026,
  title = {dag},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/dag},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}