Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary - shingle

 I. noun  Etymology: Middle English schingel, alteration of Old English scindel, from Medieval Latin scindula, alteration of Latin scandula  Date: 13th century  1. a small thin piece of building material often with one end thicker than the other for laying in overlapping rows as a covering for the roof or sides of a building  2. a small signboard especially designating a professional office — used chiefly in the phrase hang out one's ~  3. a woman's haircut with the hair trimmed short from the back of the head to the nape  II. transitive verb  (~d; shingling)  Date: 1562  1. to cover with or as if with ~s  2. to bob and shape (the hair) in a ~  3. to lay out or arrange so as to overlap  • ~r noun  III. noun  Etymology: Middle English chyngell; akin to Middle Low German singel seashore gravel  Date: 15th century  1. coarse rounded detritus or alluvial material especially on the seashore that differs from ordinary gravel only in the larger size of the stones  2. a place strewn with ~  • shingly adjective