shag

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“
Nearly all the oaks bore a shag of dried leaves about their trunks, like mossy beards of old men, only the shag was a bright russet instead of white.

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Definitions (33)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (13)

  1. noun A tangle or mass, especially of rough matted hair.
  2. noun A coarse long nap, as on a woolen cloth.
  3. noun Cloth having such a nap.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (11)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

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Examples (50)

  • Her black hair was cut in a thick shoulder length shag, and her blue eyes peered at us through rimless glasses. —  AHMM,June2006
  • Give me the statutory dressing-gown and ounce of shag, and I will undertake to dispose of this little difficulty for you in a brace of shakes. —  Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers
  • Sections of the original read like shag-carpeted relics. —  msnbc.com: Top msnbc.com headlines
  • • Aronson's Floor Covering Spring Warehouse Sale Up to a 60\% discount on hundreds of area rugs including shag, flatweave, and needlepoint rugs from Merida Meridian in wool, sisal, abaca, and jute, as well as on overstock and remnants from additional manufacturers. —  Apartment Therapy Main
  • It will, apparently, work on your wood, granite or marble worktop, and on your thick-shag living-room carpet -- there's a video with the inventor. —  Technology: Technology blog | guardian.co.uk
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This word has been looked up 118 times.

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Etymologies (8)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. Middle English *shagge, from Old English sceacga, matted hair.
  2. Origin unknown.
  3. Perhaps from its shaggy crest.
  4. Perhaps from obsolete shag, to shake.
  5. Perhaps from obsolete shag, to shake, wiggle.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. from Middle English *shagge, from Anglo-Saxon sçeacga, hair, = Icelandic skegg = Swedish skägg, a beard, = Danish skæg, a barb, beard, wattle; perhaps akin to Icelandic skaga, jut out, skagi, a cape, headland (later English skaw). Cf. shog, shock, adjective rough-coated dog. Hence shagged, shaggy.
  2. from shag, n.
  3. Prob. from shag, with reference to its tuft. Cf. Icelandic skegg-lingr, modern skeggla, a kind of bird, supposed to be the green cormorant.
 

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/ʃæg/
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