shingle

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Every time a shingle is added to the gimcrack, ramshackle governance structure that we're propping up, another door falls off its hinges.

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Definitions (28)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (7)

  1. noun A thin oblong piece of material, such as wood or slate, that is laid in overlapping rows to cover the roof or sides of a house or other building.
  2. noun Informal A small signboard, as one indicating a professional office: After passing the bar exam, she hung out her shingle.
  3. noun A woman's close-cropped haircut.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (13)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (4)

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Examples (50)

  • Every time a shingle is added to the gimcrack, ramshackle governance structure that we're propping up, another door falls off its hinges. —  Dawg's Blawg
  • This season, Kutcher and his Katalyst shingle are also behind an untitled CW skein focusing on pageants -- and co-produced by Tyra Banks. —  Variety.com
  • At low tide, the mud and the shingle is exposed, and it looks like a sluggish stream - but six hours later, it's less than a metre from the top of the embankments and there are ominous whirlpools that suggest that falling in would be a Very Bad Idea indeed. —  adoption curve dot net
  • This article shows you the four main steps you must follow before you put up your virtual shingle, and that you must continue following, an ever-improving cycle that will bring the success your enthusiasm deserves. —  Find Free Articles - ArticlesBase
  • Their Shine Global shingle, a nonprofit aimed at ending child exploitation and abuse, received an Oscar nomination for the 2007 feature doc "War Dance." —  Variety.com
 

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Etymologies (6)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English, from Old English scindel, scingal, from Late Latin scindula, alteration of Latin scandula (influenced by scindere, to split).
  2. Middle English.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (4)

  1. from Middle English shingle, shyngyl, shyngul, scingle, single, a corruption of shindle, shindel: see shindle. The cause of the change is not obvious; some confusion with single, a., or with shingle, orig. *single, or with some Old French word, may be conjectured. It is noteworthy that all the words spelled shingle (shingle, shingle, shingles) are corrupted in form.
  2. from Middle English schinglen; from shingle, n.
  3. An altered form, apparently simulating shingle (with which the word is generally confused), of * single, from Norwegian singel (also singling), coarse gravel, shingle, so called from the ‘singing’ or crunching noise made by walking on it; from singla = Swedish dial. singla, ring, tinkle (cf. singla-skälla, a bell for a horse's neck; singel, bell-clapper), freq. form of singa, Swedish sjunga = Icelandic syngja, sing, = Anglo-Saxon singan, later English sing: see sing. Cf. singing sands, moving sands that make a ringing sound.
  4. A corrupt form of * single, early modern English also sengle, properly cingle, from Old French cengle, sengle, sangle, French sangle, from Latin cingula, girdle, girth: see cingle, surcingle. Hence shingles.
 

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/ˈʃɪŋgl/
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