fag1

[fag] /fæg/
verb (used with object), fagged, fagging.
1.
to tire or weary by labor; exhaust (often followed by out):
The long climb fagged us out.
2.
British. to require (a younger public-school pupil) to do menial chores.
3.
Nautical. to fray or unlay the end of (a rope).
verb (used without object), fagged, fagging.
4.
Chiefly British. to work until wearied; work hard:
to fag away at French.
5.
British Informal. to do menial chores for an older public-school pupil.
noun
6.
Slang. a cigarette.
7.
a fag end, as of cloth.
8.
a rough or defective spot in a woven fabric; blemish; flaw.
9.
Chiefly British. drudgery; toil.
10.
British Informal. a younger pupil in a British public school required to perform certain menial tasks for, and submit to the hazing of, an older pupil.
11.
a drudge.
Origin
1425-75; late Middle English fagge broken thread in cloth, loose end (of obscure origin); sense development apparently: drooping end > to droop, tire > to make weary > drudgery, drudge (compare relationship of flag1 to flag3); (def 6) a shortening of fag end (a butt, hence a cigarette)
Related forms
unfagged, adjective

fag2

[fag] /fæg/
Usage alert
The terms faggot and fag are both used with disparaging intent and are perceived as highly insulting. However, faggot (but not fag) is sometimes used within the gay community as a positive term of self-reference.
noun, Slang.
1.
Extremely Disparaging and Offensive. a contemptuous term used to refer to a male homosexual.
2.
Offensive. a contemptible or dislikable person.
Origin
1920-25, Americanism; by shortening
Related forms
faggish, adjective
British Dictionary definitions for fag

fag1

/fæɡ/
noun
1.
(informal) a boring or wearisome task: it's a fag having to walk all that way
2.
(Brit) (esp formerly) a young public school boy who performs menial chores for an older boy or prefect
verb fags, fagging, fagged
3.
(informal) when tr, often foll by out. to become or cause to become exhausted by hard toil or work
4.
(usually intransitive) (Brit) to do or cause to do menial chores in a public school: Brown fags for Lee
Word Origin
C18: of obscure origin

fag2

/fæɡ/
noun
1.
(Brit) a slang word for cigarette
2.
a fag end, as of cloth
Word Origin
C16 (in the sense: something hanging loose, flap): of obscure origin

fag3

/fæɡ/
noun
1.
(slang, mainly US & Canadian) short for faggot2
Word Origin and History for fag
v.

"to droop, decline, tire," 1520s, apparently an alteration of flag (v.) in its sense of "droop." Transitive sense of "to make (someone or something) fatigued" is first attested 1826. Related: Fagged; fagging.

n.

British slang for "cigarette" (originally, especially, the butt of a smoked cigarette), 1888, probably from fag-end "extreme end, loose piece" (1610s), from fag "loose piece" (late 15c.), which is perhaps related to fag (v.).

Slang definitions & phrases for fag

fag

modifier

: frenetic hot-rhythm dancing, the cheap fag jokes/ like a fag party

noun
  1. A cigarette; butt, coffin nail: He passed them swell fags around (1888+)
  2. A male homosexual; faggot, queer: Fags are certain to arouse the loathing of all decent fiction addicts/ sicker by a long shot than any fag, drag, thang, or simple gay man or woman (1923+)
verb

(also fagout) To fatigue; exhaust •The sense ''to study hard, go without sleep,'' is attested in Cambridge University slang by 1803: This sort of work fags me quickly (1930+)

[origin unknown; the ''homosexual'' sense may be connected with the British term fag, ''the boy servant, and inferentially the catamite, of a public-school upperclassman''; perhaps influenced by Yiddish faygele, ''homosexual,'' literally ''bird, little bird'']