fag end
noun(British English, informal)- [countable] /ˈfæɡ end//ˈfæɡ end/the last part of a cigarette that is left after it has been smoked
- The floor was littered with fag ends.
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- [singular] /ˌfæɡ ˈend//ˌfæɡ ˈend/the fag end of something the last part of something, especially when it is less important or interesting
- I only caught the fag end of their conversation.
- the fag end of England’s industrial heyday
Word Originearly 17th cent. (in the sense ‘remnant’): from 15th-cent. fag ‘a flap’, of unknown origin. The current sense dates from the early 20th cent.
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fag end