أَشْعَثُ
1.
, (S, Mgh, Msb, K,) and أَشْعَثُ الرَّأْسِ, (K,) and
شَعِثٌ, (Mgh, TA,) [and شَعِثُ الرَّأْسِ,] and
شَعْثَانُ, (TA,) and شَعْثَانُ الرَّأْسِ, (K,) applied to a man, (A, Mgh, Msb,) Having the hair shaggy, or dishevelled, and frouzy, or altered in odour, in consequence of its being seldom dressed: (Mgh:) or having the hair defiled with dust, and matted, or compacted, in consequence of its being seldom anointed: (Msb:) or having the head dusty, (S, A, K, TA,) and the hair plucked, and unanointed: (TA:) feminine of the first شَعْثَاءُ, applied to a woman: (A, Msb:) and شُعْثٌ [is its plural, and] is applied to horses, as meaning [having shaggy coats,] not curried: (S:) or dusty by
reason of long journeying. (Ham p. 130, [See and example from a poet, voce ايَةٌ.]) The first [or each] is also applied to a head, as meaning Dusty, not renovated [by dressing or anointing], nor cleansed. (Msb.)
2.
الأَشْعَثُ (tropical:) The wooden peg or stake: (A, K, TA:) so in a verse of El-Kumeyt cited in the first paragraph of article حف: an epithet in which the quality of a subst. is predominant: (TA:) so called because its head is disintegrated; or separated, disunited, or uncompacted, in its component parts [or its fibres; by its being battered by blows]. (A, * TA.)
3.
And (assumed tropical:) What has dried up of the [barley-grass called] بُهْمَى: (K, TA:) [or] it is so called when its prickles have dried. (TA.)