Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The end of a web of cloth where it is secured to the loom and is therefore rough and unfinished and disfigured with holes. It is customary to allow purchasers to exclude it from the measurement of what they buy.
- n. The latter or meaner part of anything; the very end: used in contempt.
- n. Nautical, the untwisted end of a rope.
Wiktionary
- n. last remnant
- n. frayed end of a length of cloth or rope
- n. The unsmoked end of a cigarette or cigar
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An end of poorer quality, or in a spoiled condition, as the coarser end of a web of cloth, the untwisted end of a rope, etc.
- n. The refuse or meaner part of anything.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the frayed end of a length of cloth or rope
- n. the time of the last part of something
Examples
“Eurosport's coverage was a non-studio affair, reducing Wayne and Stewart to faceless voices and hurling us straight into the fag-end of the opening ceremony, which with London 2012 looming like an embarrassing family party, became unnaturally interesting.”
The Guardian: Gary Lineker's jokes have you itching for a touch of punk from Africa | Barney Ronay
“They were part of a digression in a talk I gave to the 1970 Exeter conference on childrens literature, and if Id realised then what a powder-keg I was throwing my fag-end of thought into I would have kept my trap shut.”
“But you'd be wrong: this was the fag-end of the Clinton era, when Democrats were as mesmerised by financial markets as Republicans and the word "unregulated" was seen as go-ahead and exciting rather than worrying.”
The Guardian: Bankers and politicians have turned food into a betting game | Aditya Chakrabortty
“Michael Chapman has pretty much ended up at the fag-end of his days as a quirky, unreliable bugger playing little pub gigs in odd places, although his talent's not diminished, it seems.”
“The follow-up, the equally good Unspoken, is set at the fag-end of the holiday season, and the colder climate is an apt setting for the bleakest of the novel's plot threads.”
“Our city lies in the midst of a desert of the purest—most unadulterated, and uncompromising sand—in which infernal soil nothing than that fag-end of vegetable creation, ‘sage-brush,’ ventures to grow.”
“And I sometimes read the paper while watching TV, (the local news, perhaps, or during the fag-end of Match of the Day while the bottom-rung Premiership games are being shown), but surfing while watching telly?”
“That was published last December; the new hostility towards Israel was already apparent in the fag-end of the Bush administration.”
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with...
“But take a good look at the enemy now: New Labour in its haggard, fag-end years, on the brink of being ejected from office.”
Free - Are we? Rafael Behr spouts cockwhaffle on CCTV liberty.
“The allegations about cash for honours which plagued the fag-end of the Blair administration and for which there was never enough evidence to prosecute is another example.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘fag-end’.
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The Aubrey/Maturin List I'm Gonna Mak...
I'm wading through Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels one by one, and someday, I'll wade through them again and list all the words I learned while reading them.
Edit: I started ma...studdingsail, carronade, mumchance, grumlin-futtocks, crosscat-harpings, holystone, sennit, orlop, orchitis, negus, kevel, altumal and 1112 more...
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Gil Blas
Interesting words and usages from Smollett's 1749 translation of Lesage's L'Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane
reck, durance, rhodomontade, hangdog, trap, lustre, pin, boggle, dandle, birthday suit, colic, gripes and 238 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for fag-end.
yarb I thanked the magistrate for the abridgment of justice with which he had deigned to favour me, and was getting to the fag end of my compliment, when the muleteer arrived, with an attendant before and behind.
- Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 1 ch. 12 Sep 11, 2008
chained_bear See reef-point for a usage note. A Sea of Words: The last part or remnant; the end of a rope, especially a frayed end. (192) Mar 6, 2008