fagging

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fag¹

(făg)

n. Chiefly British

a. A student at a boarding school who is required to perform menial tasks for a student in a higher grade.

b. A drudge.

2. Fatiguing or tedious work; drudgery.

v. fagged, fag·ging, fags

v.tr. Informal

To exhaust; weary: Four hours on the tennis court fagged me out.

v.intr. Chiefly British

1. To work to exhaustion; toil.

2. To function as the servant of another student in a boarding school.

[From fag, to droop (obsolete), perhaps from Middle English fagge; see fag end.]

fag²

(făg)

n. Slang

A cigarette.

[Short for fag end.]

fag³

(făg)

n. Offensive Slang

Used as a disparaging term for a gay man.

[Short for faggot.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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References in classic literature ?

He only got that degree of beating which was, no doubt, good for him; and as for blacking shoes, toasting bread, and fagging in general, were these offices not deemed to be necessary parts of every young English gentleman's education?

Rawdon marvelled over his stories about school, and fights, and fagging. Before long, he knew the names of all the masters and the principal boys as well as little Rawdon himself.

View in context

And there's the island in the farthest corner; you'll know that well enough next half, when there's island fagging. I say, it's horrid cold; let's have a run across." And away went East, Tom close behind him.

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