shags

Noun

shag (countable and uncountable, plural shags)

1. Matted material; rough massed hair, fibres etc.
   • Nor ſhould it prove thy leſs important Care, / To chuſe a proper Coat for Winter's Wear. / [...] / True Witney Broad-cloath with it's Shag unſhorn, / Unpierc'd is in the laſting Tempeſt worn: [...][1716], [John] Gay, “Book I. Of the Implements for Walking the Streets, and Signs of the Weather”, in Trivia: Or, The Art of Walking the Streets of London, London: […] Bernard Lintott, […], →OCLC...
2. Coarse shredded tobacco.
   • He was rather unshaven as well and smelt strongly of shag.1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia (Avignon Quintet; 2), Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 535
3. A type of rough carpet pile.
4. (Ireland, UK, archaic) Bacon or fat, especially if with some remaining hair or bristles.
5. (Ireland, UK, archaic) A roughly-cut or torn-off piece of bread or cheese.
   • But it is a braw elemental sphere this o' ours, for here's a good queich o' claret for ye, an' a shag o' butter-an'-bread.1830 January 23, Ettrick Shepherd, “Dr David Dale's Account of a Grand Aerial Voyage”, in The Edinburgh Literary Journal, volume 3, number 63, page 52
6. (attributive, often) A deliberately messy, shaggy hairstyle.
   • There was that hair salon on Yonge Street called House of Lords. On a Saturday – nowadays you can't even imagine it – but imagine a hair salon having a lineup outside of people wanting to get a shag haircut.2011, Liz Worth, Gary Pig Gold, Treat Me Like Dirt: An Oral History of Punk in Toronto and Beyond 1977-1981, page 16

   Synonyms:

   shaggy cut

See all 23 meanings of shag