dag
/daɡ
/noun
1 (usually dags) Australian /NZ A lock of wool matted with dung hanging from the hindquarters of a sheep.Farmers and farmers-hands may regularly cut off the dags to keep their sheep clean....
- Besides reducing methane emissions, condensed tannins have other animal-related benefits, including improved milk yields, increased liveweight gain, decreased internal parasite burden and reduced bloat, dags and fly strike.
- The fleece is so cut that the wool around the base of the legs and backside runs in a continuous line, from which it is easy to strip the dags, the stains and the prickles.
2Australian /NZ informal An entertainingly eccentric person; a character: your father must have been a bit of a dag...
- Although it is hard to play favourites with such a loveable bunch of dags, I must confess to preferring mum Janelle to the rest.
3Australian informal A conservative or unfashionable person.Floyd may be a bit of a dag, but he's a pretty nifty player when it comes to badminton!...
- We've all known people like Steve, the likeable dag with big dreams.
3.1An untidy or dirty-looking person.
3.2An awkward adolescent.
verb (dags, dagging, dagged) [with object] Australian /NZ
Cut dags from (a sheep): we failed to have the ewes dagged...
- Robert has returned to the farm to dag sheep and I'm staying here with the dog, cats and the baby.
- Dag the sheep at least seven days before shearing.
- Ideally sheep should be dagged before shearing particularly if they are excessively soiled.
Phrases
rattle one's dags
Origin
Late Middle English (denoting a hanging pointed part of something): possibly related to tag1. sense 1 of the noun dates from the early 17th century; sense 2 of the noun is a transferred use of English dialect meaning 'a challenge'.