1742 Gentleman's Mag. Feb. 103/2 The rest of the evening is past in chit-chat, In admiring the Mag, a song, and all that.

1785 T. Jefferson Notes Virginia xxiii. 365 The general and definitive treaty of peace concluded at Aix-la-Chapelle. Lond. Mag. 1748.

1801 ‘P. Pindar’ Tears & Smiles 73 Who wrote in Mags for hire.

1869 Chambers's Jrnl. 8 May 303/2 Why don't you fellows write something for the mags?

1888 C. T. Jacobi Printers' Vocab. 80 Mag, an abbreviation very generally used by printers for ‘magazine’.

1939 Airman's Gaz. Dec. 2 Special thanks to those lads..joining the select band of mag artists.

1958 A. Wilson Middle Age of Mrs Eliot ii. 271 It would be so awful to have one of those office affaires that they have in the women's mags.

1970 G. Greer Female Eunuch 130 Nude modelling for girlie mags pays very well.

1990 Punch 20 Apr. 7/1 I am but a recent peruser of your mag, so I quite definitely have nothing to say regarding your ‘new look’.

1958 Guns & Ammo Winter 79/3 (advt.) U.S. Carbine Magazines... 15-shot mag... 30-shot mag.

1972 Amateur Photographer 26 July 55/3 Hanimex Slide Projectors... All inc. lamps and 36 magazine rondette... Other Slide Projectors (inc. lamp). Agfacolor 250 90 mm 36 mag. £74.95..Aldis 2000 Auto 36 mag. £29.95.

1991 Soldier of Fortune Dec. 16/2 I wanted the gun with the most firepower, so I picked my Remington 1100 with a 10-pound mag.

?1775 Ranelaugh Concert 7/1 A link boy once I stood the gag, At Charing-Cross did ply, Here's light your honour for a mag, But now my potatoes cry.

1789 G. Parker Life's Painter xv. 142 Mag. Is a halfpenny.

1813 Sporting Mag. 42 219 Neither of these forsaken damsels had one single mag, or piece of any kind of coin.

1852 C. Dickens Bleak House xxiii It can't be worth a mag to him.

1862 H. Kingsley Ravenshoe I. ix. 111 As long as he had a ‘mag’ to bless himself with, he would always be a lazy, useless humbug.

1898 Yorkshireman Oct. 315 A meg for runnin' a errand.

1918 J. Galsworthy Five Tales iii. 131 Don't you believe it; he hasn't a mag to his name.

1869 F. Henderson Six Years in Prisons Eng. vii. 77 You have seen those blokes at fairs and races, throwing up coppers, or playing at pitch and toss? Well, these are ‘mag-flyers’.

1882 Standard 8 Aug. 3/7 There were usually three or four in a gang, one acting as the ‘magflyer’, the ‘mag’ being the coin, another as the caller of the odds or amounts, a third as treasurer.

1883 Daily Tel. 26 Mar. 2/8 Of the twenty-nine ‘night-charges’, by far the greater number were of..boys for mag flying, i.e., ‘pitch and toss’.

1778 F. Burney Let. Sept. in Early Jrnls. & Lett. (1994) III. 154 Mrs. Thrale: O, if you have any Mag. in you, we'll draw it out.

1875 E. Lynn Linton Patricia Kemball II. iv. 78 Hold your mag on things you don't understand.

1885 E. C. Sharland Ways & Means in Devonshire Village ii. 26 You go away for a while, my dear, and let me have a little mag with Emma.

1910 Truth (Sydney) 9 Jan. 1/5 He was a drummer with plenty of mag.

1948 V. Palmer Golconda xvii. 140 And what's Christy doing?.. Coming down every blue moon with a lot of mag about acting in common.

1980 D. Hewett Susannah's Dreaming (1981) 8 She wants ter stay and 'ave a bit of a mag with Freddy.

1876 Wellington Jrnl. & Shrewsbury News 15 Jan. 6/5 Shropshire and Herefordshire Provincialisms... Mag, used in each county to imply a continual chatter or teaze.

1892 ‘F. Anstey’ Talking Horse 46 ‘Alick does call me a “mag”,’ said Priscilla; ‘but that's wrong, because I never speak without having something to say.’

1943 F. Sargeson in N.Z. New Writing 1 6 She was a mag, and all the way along..she talked about how nice the water looked.

1802 G. Montagu Ornithol. Dict. at Magpie From these circumstances it has been supposed that there are two species, and have sometimes been denominated the Tree-Mag and the Hedge-Mag.

a1864 J. Clare in J. L. Cherry Life & Remains J. Clare (1873) 245 While mag's on her nest with her tail peeping out.

1885 C. Swainson Provinc. Names Brit. Birds 76 Magpie (Pica rustica)... Familiar names. Mag, or Madge.

1984 W. B. Lockwood Oxf. Bk. Brit. Bird Names 99 Mag, in local use for magpie, of which it is an abbreviation.]

1895 Pall Mall Gaz. 29 July 11/2 If Winans made a ‘mag’ with his first shot he would probably cease firing.

1840 Mem. Royal Astron. Soc. 11 283 (heading) Relative order of mag. as observed.

1851 Monthly Notices Royal Astron. Soc. 11 187 A double star..appearing to the naked eye as a bright 4 mag., and designated by A as 3·4.

1918 Astrophysical Jrnl. 47 264 The absolute magnitudes of the bulk of the A stars lie within a range of 2·6 mags.

1972 Nature 22 Dec. 439/2 The distribution of galaxies brighter than 16 mag is..not especially isotropic.

1992 S. P. Maran Astron. & Astrophysics Encycl. 730/1 The name ‘delta Scuti star c’..is used..for the members of the δ Scuti class with amplitudes smaller than 0.1 mag.

1918 J. M. Grider Diary 16 Mar. in War Birds (1926) 89 He wasn't hurt but the Spad was a write-off and Foggin got one mag [from the wreck].

1920 Blackwood's Mag. Nov. 562/2 Having wrestled for an hour with the mags., they were eventually induced to give forth reluctant sparks.

1930 J. B. Priestley Angel Pavement ii. 72 Wanted new plugs and mag. and brakes relining.

1943 R.A.F. Jrnl. Aug. 11 I could see her eyes intent on the rev counter as she cut out first one mag, then the other.

1958 ‘J. Castle’ & A. Hailey Flight into Danger i. 16 Each engine has two magnetos... In the run-up each engine in turn is opened to full throttle and each of the mags tested separately.

1973 E. Arnold Proving Ground (1974) iv. 61 Sayers pulled off the throttle and cut off the mag.

1991 Pilot Nov. 40/1 Put your left hand on the rotary mag switch... With your right hand resting on the prop tip, you're ready to start.

1952 Pop. Sci. June 122 The Navy has high hopes for an F9F it has built with an all-mag wing.

1961 Hot Rod Mag. July 42/2 The mag wheel complete, except for bolt holes.

1971 M. Tak Truck Talk 103 Mag brake, a brake shoe made of a steel and magnesium alloy.

1986 Citizens' Band Dec. 10/2 Mag-mounts do offer yet another alternative but they have been known to come adrift at higher speeds.

1992 New Yorker 14 Dec. 99/2 His car was beat up but charming—a Pontiac Parisienne, metal-flake green, with mag wheels and lake pipes.

1961 N.Y. Times 15 Oct. iii. 1 Trade circles wondered if ‘mag’ prices would come down also.

1969 C. Trickey Building & Racing 850 Mini i. 10/2 While, naturally, mag. alloy wheels are highly desirable from other points of view, the steel ones are obviously the best choice for a formula which is trying to keep costs to a minimum.

1990 Health Guardian Nov. 15/3 Mag Phos with its anti-spasmodic effect is also a useful one.

1960 Datamation Jan. 39/1 (heading) Mag tape tensiometer.

1977 South China Morning Post (Hong Kong) 13 Apr. 20 (advt.) IBM Electronic Composer Operator. Must have at least 6 months experience..and be willing to learn magtape and stand-alone machines.

1993 R. Rucker et al. Mondo 2000 (U.K. ed.) 126 Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon filled with magtape, or a 747 filled with CD-ROMs.

1998 Studio Sound (Nexis) July 66 Foley and ADR people went to Sony Studios in nearby Culver City where they used the Waveframe and laid back to 6-track mag tape.

c1450 (?a1400) Wars Alexander (Ashm.) 1268 Þe Messedones..Makis þar mane for þat man &..For..menere & grettir..Þat was in morsels magged [a1500 Trin. Dub. made] & martrid a hundreth.

1810 Splendid Follies I. 68 Don't you think she magged away pretty sharply! That's the worst of the young ones—they will cackle so confoundedly.

1885 J. Runciman Skippers & Shellbacks 248 I'll snap your backbone across my knee if you meg half a second more.

1925 A. Wright Boy from Bullarah 166 Don't mag so much, Yank... Y're always yappin'.

1944 ‘S. Campion’ Pommy Cow 110 You don't wanna hear me mag about Queensland.

1968 S. L. Elliott Rusty Bugles in E. Hanger Three Austral. Plays i. iii. 53 Aw, shut up... How can I read my letter with you maggin'.

1986 Truckin' Life (Austral.) Jan. 10/3 Calls just for someone to mag to may not go down too well.

1869 F. Henderson Six Years in Prisons Eng. vii. 77 You can ‘mag’ a man at any time you are playing cards or at billiards.

1885 M. Davitt Leaves from Prison Diary I. vi. 58 The operation of ‘maggin the gowk out of his purse’.

1908 N.Z. Truth 11 July 2 It is their flow of language that catches the mug, just as the guesser ‘mags’ his pigeon into backing a stummer.

1944 F. Clune Red Heart 73 So Andrew the Hatter magged his way out of gaol.

1978 H. C. Baker I was Listening 180 Brash will mag his way in, and mag his way out wherever he goes.