Definition of "dag"

To see the dunged folds of dag-tayled sheepe.

1597-98 1597–8, Joseph_Hall_(bishop) Joseph Hall Satires, Book 5, number 1

Daglocks, clotted locks hanging in dags or jags at a sheep's tail.

1859-1865, Hensleigh Wedgwood, A Dictionary of English Etymology

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.

1998, Wool: Volume 8, Issue 10, as published by the Massey Wool Association

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

1999, G. C. Waghorn, N. G. Gregory, S. E. Todd, and R. Wesselink, Dags in sheep; a look at faeces and reasons for dag formation, published in the Proceedings of the New Zealand Grassland Association 61, on pages 43–49

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

2004, Mette Vaarst, Animal health and welfare in organic agriculture, page 323

[Researchers] note that free pellets are characteristic of healthy sheep and that if sheep consistently produced free pellets, wool staining and dag formation would not occur.

2006, in the compilation of the Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture, volume 46, issues 1-5, published by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (Australia), on page 7

Blade shearers could shear, crutch, mules or dag sheep anywhere they were needed.

2007, Graeme R. Quick, Remarkable Australian Farm Machines: Ingenuity on the Land

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.

2010 January 29, Emma Partridge, “Richie Foster a cut above the rest”, in Stock Journal

Vexing the baths with his dagg'd rout.

a. 1661, B. Holyday, Juvenal's Satires

Even when my dag was levelled at his heart

1515, Thomas Kyd, Arden of Feversham

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.

1899 May 6, “Old Hudson's Bay Dag”, in Forest and Stream, volume 52, number 18, page 347

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.

1904, Robert Hugh Benson, By what Authority?, page 400

The Spaniards discharged their dags, and hurt some.

1563 March 30, John Foxe, Actes and Monuments of These Latter and Perillous Dayes, […], London: […] Iohn Day, […]

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

1630, Thomas Dekker, The Whore of Babylon

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

1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons

Dag, yo.

2002 December 2, Michael Chapman; Matthew Chapman, “Teen Girl Squad Issue #1”, in Homestar Runner‎, spoken by Strong Bad as What's Her Face (Matthew Chapman)

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.

2004 July 25, Debbie Kruger, Melbourne Weekly Magazine, All the World's a Stage

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.

2006 September 26, “Klancie Keough eliminated”, in TV Week

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?

2009 November 14, “Catherine Zeta - Hollywood's biggest dag?”, in Daily Telegraph

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.

2010 January 15, Michael Dwyer, “Talented dag plucks up the cool”, in The Age

Mickey: Dags! D' ya like dags?

2000, Guy Ritchie, Snatch, quoted in, Miguel Á. Bernal-Merino, Translation and Localisation in Video Games: Making Entertainment Software Global, Routledge page 68

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.

2014, John P Brady, Back to the Gaff, Roadside Fiction, page 131