The Collaborative International Dictionary
fagging \fag"ging\ (f[a^]g"g[i^]ng), n. Laborious drudgery; esp., the acting as a drudge for another at an English school.
Wiktionary
vb. (present participle of fag English)
WordNet
v. act as a servant for older boys, in British public schools
work hard; "She was digging away at her math homework"; "Lexicographers drudge all day long" [syn: labor, labour, toil, travail, grind, drudge, dig, moil]
exhaust or tire through overuse or great strain or stress; "We wore ourselves out on this hike" [syn: tire, wear upon, tire out, wear, weary, jade, wear out, outwear, wear down, fag out, fatigue] [ant: refresh]
See fag
Wikipedia
Fagging was a traditional practice in British boarding private schools (nearly all " public schools" in the English sense) and also many other boarding schools, whereby younger pupils were required to act as personal servants to the most senior boys. While domestic servants were common in family households, the custom reflected household task distribution and taught pupils about service from both ends of the relationship.
Under school rules, fagging might entail harsh discipline and corporal punishment when those were standard practices. Fagging was sometimes associated with sexual abuse by those older boys.
The practice of personal fagging faded away during the 1970s and 1980s, but to some degree has been maintained in former colonies or has been replaced by systems which require junior boys to perform tasks for the benefit of the general school community.
Usage examples of "fagging".
Peggotty, and been well paid in being asked to do it, yet she persisted, all day long, in toiling under weights that she was quite unequal to, and fagging to and fro on all sorts of unnecessary errands.
In one way and another,' said I, conscious of reddening a little as I thought of the hours and hours I had devoted to fagging about town, and to and fro upon the Norwood Road, 'I have abundance of time.
I dare say that is why he is perpetually fagging up and down to London.
Oh, how well it would suit you -your own master, no fagging up and down to Whitehall, no admirals to make you do tiresome things and snatch great lumps of your prize-money.
I am not going to tell Esme about the fagging system, which still flourished at Colborne in my day.
There was still sleep in them, and he could sense his muscles fagging behind the messages the brain was sending as he swung his feet out of the bunk and stood up.