Definition of "shingle" [shin•gle]

• A thin oblong piece of material, such as wood or slate, that is laid in overlapping rows to cover the roof or sides of a house or other building. (noun)
• Informal A small signboard, as one indicating a professional office: After passing the bar exam, she hung out her shingle. (noun)
• A woman's close-cropped haircut. (noun)
• To cover (a roof or building) with shingles. (verb-transitive)
• To cut (hair) short and close to the head. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Rapping the knife with a baton, split a thin shingle from the side of a dry wood block."
• "Every time a shingle is added to the gimcrack, ramshackle governance structure that we're propping up, another door falls off its hinges."
• "Savills International and Aylesford Indigenous materials were used during construction wherever possible, including rock and shingle from the local riverbeds and aggregate for the concrete during building."