dag

noun

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.”

   “1859-1865, Hensleigh Wedgwood, A Dictionary of English Etymology Daglocks, clotted locks hanging in dags or jags at a sheep's tail.”

   “He was one of the first significant private buyers of wool in New Zealand, playing a major part in bringing respectability to what at first was a very diverse group. He pioneered the pelletising of dag waste.”

   “The development of dags first requires some faeces to adhere to wool, but this is only the initial step in accumulation.”

   “[…] and the use of tanniferous forages may affect faecal consistency, reducing the formation of dag (faeces-coated wool).”

3. A skewer.
4. A spit, a sharpened rod used for roasting food over a fire.
5. (obsolete)A dagger; a poniard.

   “Even when my dag was levelled at his heart”

   “Soon after this, however, there were brought into the country these old-time dags, useful weapons which rendered far easier the labors of men and of women. These were employed for many years, but later the company sent in an improved knife, more useful for skinning and for the other purposes of camp life, but not nearly so good for war.”

   “When we reached the poop-stairs an officer in a blue coat came forward jabbering some jargon; but the captain would have no parley with him, but flung his dag clean into the man's face, and over he went backwards— with his damned high heels in the air.”

6. (obsolete)A kind of large pistol.

   “The Spaniards discharged their dags, and hurt some.”

   “Powder! No, Sir; my dag shall be my dagger.”

   “A sort of pistol, called a dag, was used about the same time as hand guns and harquebuts.”

7. The unbranched antler of a young deer.
8. (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 Victorian Arts Centre Playhouse.”

   “What did you think about Mark calling you a dag? To me a dag is a person who doesn't have a lot of pride in their appearance or the way they present themselves — the way they sing and how they hold themselves basically. But it didn't really bother me. He said, "You're such a dag, you're cool." I took it as "you're a laidback person". The way they cut it and edited it made it sound on TV like I was grumpy about it, but I wasn't. It was pretty funny how it came across.”

   “SHE is one of Hollywood's most beautiful leading ladies and has access to any fashion designers, so then why is Catherine Zeta-Jones dressing like a bag lady?”

   “A graduate of film studies in New York, May has had a hand in editing two of his three videos. Each casts him as a bespectacled dag in a world of glamour.”

9. (Australia, New-Zealand, obsolete, slang)An odd or eccentric person; someone who is a bit strange but amusingly so.
10. A misty shower; dew.
11. A directed acyclic graph; an ordered pair (V,E) such that E is a subset of some partial ordering relation on V.
12. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis)Ellipsis of dag sandwich.
13. (Ireland, alt-of, pronunciation-spelling)Pronunciation spelling of dog.

    “Mickey: Dags! D' ya like dags?”

    “There it was again, that old Gaelic verb pronounced 'scriss,' that those involved in fighting talk apparently exuded on occasion. It could have been 'D'ya wanna buy a dag?' it was all the same.”

14. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis)Ellipsis of Dagwood sandwich.
15. (abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable)Initialism of deputy attorney general.
16. (abbreviation, acronym, alt-of, countable, uncountable)Acronym of directed acyclic graph.
17. (US, abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable)Initialism of defense acquisition guide.
18. (abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable)Initialism of diacylglycerol.

verb

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.”

   “After learning how to crutch at 13, he could dag 400 sheep in a day by the spring of 1965 and earned himself more than just a bit of pocket money.”

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.”

4. (transitive)To skewer food, for roasting over a fire.
5. (UK, dialectal)To be misty; to drizzle.

intj

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

   “Dag, yo.”