fag

noun

1. (US)In textile inspections, a rough or coarse defect in the woven fabric.
2. (Ireland, UK, colloquial)A cigarette.

   “He′d Phase Out Fag Industry Los Angeles (UPI) - A UCLA professor has called for the phasing out of the cigarette industry by converting tobacco acres to other crops.”

   “Oh, rent a flat above a shop / And cut your hair and get a job / And smoke some fags and play some pool / Pretend you never went to school”

   “All of them, like my mother, were heavy smokers, and after warming themselves by the fire, they would sit on the sofa and smoke, lobbing their wet fag ends into the fire.”

   “So I started off by asking the shearers if they minded if I took a belly off while they were having a fag. Then after a while they were asking me. They′d say, ‘Do yer wanta take over fer a bit while I have a fag?’ And then I got better and I′d finish the sheep and they′d say ‘Christ, I haven′t finished me bloody fag yet, yer may as well shear anotherie.’”

3. (Ireland, UK, colloquial, obsolete)The worst part or end of a thing.

   “Fag, s. the worst part or end of anything.”

4. (Ireland, UK, archaic, colloquial)A chore: an arduous and tiresome task.

   “We are sadly off in the country; not but what we have very good shops in Salisbury, but it is so far to go—eight miles is a long way; Mr. Allen says it is nine, measured nine; but I am sure it cannot be more than eight; and it is such a fag—I come back tired to death.”

   “Keeping up appearances is a bit of a fag, I grant, but if a girl respects herself it’s up to her not to let herself get slack.”

5. (Ireland, UK, colloquial, historical)A younger student acting as a servant for senior students (potentially in a sexual or abusive way).

   “I had the character at ſchool of being the very beſt fag that ever came into it.”

   ““He was my fag at Eton,” Warrington said. “I ought to have licked him a little more.””

   “A gang of fags was mobbing about by the notice-boards. They fell silent as he approached. He patted one of them on the head. ‘Pretty children,’ he sighed, digging into his waistcoat pocket and pulling out a handful of change. ‘Tonight you shall eat.’ Scattering the coins at their feet, he moved on.”

6. (Canada, US, endearing, offensive, sometimes, usually, vulgar)A homosexual man.

   “[1921 John Lind, The Female Impersonators (Historical Documentation of American Slang v. 1, A-G, edited by Jonathan E. Lighter (New York: Random House, 1994) page 716. Androgynes known as “fairies,” “fags,” or “brownies.”]”

   “In schizophrenics, however, the homosexual outlet is sooner or later ... ideas that strangers call them "cs," "fairy," "woman," "fag," " fruit," etc.). ...”

   “When they pick out a set of clubs for him to rent, he is so indifferent and silent the freckled kid in charge stares at him as if he's a moron. The thought flits through his brain that Eccles is known as a fag and he has become the new pet.”

   “A couple of days later, Trisha tells Madelyn there is a rumor going around that she's a fag.”

   “... what appeared to be overt appeals to anti-gay sentiment. When House Majority Whip Dick Armey referred to fellow Congressman Barney Frank as "Barney Fag" in 1995, he suffered a barage of negative publicity that prompted him to explain his choice of words as a slip of the tongue.”

7. (derogatory, offensive, slang, usually)An effeminate or unusual homosexual man.
8. (US, derogatory, offensive, vulgar)An annoying or contemptible person.

   “Why did you do that, you fag?”

verb

1. (archaic, colloquial, transitive)To make exhausted, tired out.
2. (archaic, colloquial, intransitive)To droop; to tire.

   “a. 1829, G. Mackenzie, Lives, quoted in 1829, "Fag", entry in The London Encyclopaedia: Or, Universal Dictionary, Volume 9, page 12, Creighton with-held his force 'till the Italian began to fag, and then brought him to the ground.”

3. (Ireland, UK, colloquial, historical, intransitive)(of a younger student) To act as a servant for senior students in many British boarding schools. To be the servant in fagging.
4. (Ireland, UK, colloquial, historical, transitive)To have (a younger student) act as a servant in this way, in fagging.

   “It is everywhere observed that a liberated slave is apt to make a merciless master, and that boys who have been cruelly fagged at school are cruel faggers.”

5. (Ireland, UK, archaic, intransitive)To work hard, especially on menial chores.

   “This state of things should have been to me a paradise of peace, accustomed as I was to a life of ceaseless reprimand and thankless fagging; but, in fact, my racked nerves were now in such a state that no calm could soothe, and no pleasure excite them agreeably.”

   “I walked about the streets where the best shops for ladies were, I haunted the Bazaar like an unquiet spirit, I fagged through the Park again and again, long after I was quite knocked up.”