dags

1. a lock of wool matted with dung hanging from the hindquarters of a sheep.
2. an entertainingly eccentric person; a character.

   your father must have been a bit of a dag

3. a staid or socially inept person.

1. cut dags from (a sheep).

   we failed to have the ewes dagged

late Middle English (denoting a hanging pointed part of something): possibly related to tag¹. dag (sense 1 of the noun) dates from the early 17th century; dag (sense 2 of the noun) is a transferred use of English dialect meaning ‘a challenge’.