The expression “coffee break” was first attested in 1952 in glossy magazine advertisements by the Pan-American Coffee Bureau.
faggings
plural of fagging
Source: Wiktionary
Fag"ging, n.
Definition: Laborious drudgery; esp., the acting as a drudge for another at an English school.
Fag n.
Definition: A knot or coarse part in cloth. [Obs.]
Fag, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Fagged; p. pr. & vb. n. Fagging.] Etym: [Cf. LG. fakk wearied, weary, vaak slumber, drowsiness, OFries. fai, equiv. to fach devoted to death, OS. f, OHG. feigi, G. feig, feige, cowardly, Icel. feigr fated to die, AS. f, Scot. faik, to fail, stop, lower the price; or perh. the same word as E. flag to droop.]
1. To become weary; to tire. Creighton withheld his force till the Italian began to fag. G. Mackenzie.
2. To labor to wearness; to work hard; to drudge. Read, fag, and subdue this chapter. Coleridge.
3. To act as a fag, or perform menial services or drudgery, for another, as in some English schools. To fag out, to become untwisted or frayed, as the end of a rope, or the edge of canvas.
Fag, v. t.
1. To tire by labor; to exhaust; as, he was almost fagged out.
2. Anything that fatigues. [R.] It is such a fag, I came back tired to death. Miss Austen. Brain fag. (Med.) See Cerebropathy.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
15 June 2025
(verb) obtain or seek to obtain by cadging or wheedling; “he is always shnorring cigarettes from his friends”
The expression “coffee break” was first attested in 1952 in glossy magazine advertisements by the Pan-American Coffee Bureau.