faggot

Noun

faggot (plural faggots)

1. (Ireland, UK, collective) A bundle of sticks or brushwood intended to be used for fuel tied together for carrying. (Some sources specify that a faggot is tied with two bands or withes, whereas a bavin is tied with just one.)
   • In the depth of, winter, however, a faggot of real French Sticks — although of little intrinsic value — may possibly enliven for a few moments an English Fireside.1853, Sir Francis Bond Head, A faggot of French sticks: or, Paris in 1851, page 2
   • Besides the logs and roots that simmered with turves and dung on the cottage fire, rapid heat for bread-making came from faggots - bundles of dry twigs about 4 ft long - which were fed into the oven, burned and then removed as ash before the dough went in.1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 118
2. (obsolete) Burdensome baggage.
3. A bundle of pieces of iron or steel cut off into suitable lengths for welding.
4. (dated, rare) A burning or smouldering piece of firewood.
   • He clambered back on his feet and grinned at them. The waning faggot cast red light over his fangs.1961, Poul Anderson, Three Hearts and Three Lions
   • To the east, the night grew a faggot of luminous gray, then seashell opalescence that dimmed the stars.1965 October 1, Frank Herbert, “Book I: Dune”, in Dune, Philadelphia, Pa.: Chilton Book Company; [Toronto], Ont.: Thomas Nelson & Sons, →OCLC, page 100
5. (Ireland, UK) A meatball made with offcuts and offal, especially pork.
   • Today would be faggots in gravy and chocolate pudding with a white sauce. I didn't like faggots but picked at them and rolled the peas around my plate.2008, Julie Hodgson, In My Father's Pockets, page 16

   Synonyms:

   duck

6. (offensive, vulgar, highly derogatory) A gay man, especially an effeminate one; (by extension) a non-heterosexual man.
   • Drag, Example: “All the fagots (sissies) will be dressed in drag at the ball tonight.1914, Louis E. Jackson and C.R. Hellyer, Vocabulary of Criminal Slang (Portland, OR: Modern Printing Co., 1914) page 30
   • See the little faggot with the earring and the makeup? / Yeah buddy, that's his own hair / That little faggot got his own jet airplane / That little faggot, he's a millionaire1985, Sting & Mark Knopfler, “Money for Nothing”, in Brothers in Arms, performed by Dire Straits
   1. (broadly, offensive, vulgar, highly derogatory) A homosexual person or non-heterosexual person of any gender.
   2. (broadly, offensive, vulgar, highly derogatory) A queer person in general.
7. (Canada, US, derogatory, offensive, vulgar) A man considered effeminate.
8. (Canada, US, derogatory, offensive, vulgar) An annoying, inconsiderate or contemptible person.
9. (Ireland, UK, archaic, colloquial, derogatory, offensive) An old and/or shrewish woman.
   • I appoynt thée no more continencie, than to eate while thy bellie is full, nor conſtancie, but to brawle rather than burne: a filbert is better than a faggot, except it be an Athenian ſhe handfull: you know that Coſmoſophos, euer ſince your laſt mariage, how doth the father of your ſonne in law?1591, T[homas] L[odge] of Lincolns, Catharos Diogenes in his Singularitie: Wherein is comprehended his merrie baighting fit for all mens benefits: Christened by him, A Nettle for Nice Noſes, London...
   • she wants me to go to bed to her, and I won't, ... for she is as crooked as a ram's horn ... and as ugly as sin besides ; rot her, the dirty little faggot, she torments me.1796, Theobald Wolfe Tone, Autobiography

   Synonyms:

   battle axe, bitch, brim, brimstone, cat, cockatrice, crow, dragon, fishwife, harpy

10. (obsolete, offensive, possibly) A soldier numbered on the muster roll, but not really existing.
11. (Ireland, UK, historical, offensive, possibly) A faggot voter.
    • The Glasgow Herald thought that his attack on the faggots was too serious […]1973, Ellen Reid Gold, Gladstone in Midlothian: A Rhetorical Analysis of His 1879 Campaign, page 114
12. (Ireland, UK, dated, offensive, slang) A lazy, weak, work-shy person.