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a thin piece of wood, slate, metal, asbestos, or the like, usually oblong, laid in overlapping rows to cover the roofs and walls of buildings.
a woman’s close-cropped haircut.
Informal. a small signboard, especially as hung before a doctor’s or lawyer’s office.
to cover with shingles, as a roof.
to cut (hair) close to the head.
hang out one’s shingle, Informal. to establish a professional practice, especially in law or medicine; open an office.
have / be a shingle short, Australian Slang. to be mentally disturbed, mad, or eccentric.
small, waterworn stones or pebbles such as lie in loose sheets or beds on a beach.
a beach, riverbank, or other area covered with such small pebbles or stones.
to hammer or squeeze (puddled iron) into a bloom or billet, eliminating as much slag as possible; knobble.
Contemporary Examples

I could go to college and hang out a shingle and make $10,000 a year.
Mel Brooks Is Always Funny and Often Wise in This 1975 Playboy Interview Alex Belth February 15, 2014

They accepted, and re-released their debut in 2010 on Interscope shingle Cherrytree Records to critical acclaim.
Die Antwoord, Raunchy Rap Duo, on New Album, Lisbeth Salander Offer Marlow Stern February 9, 2012

The shingle recently bid its co-founder and CEO James Schamus adieu, replacing him with FilmDistrict CEO Peter Schlessel.
With Charlie Hunnam Out, Who Will Play Christian Grey in ‘Fifty Shades of Grey?’ Marlow Stern October 12, 2013

Pundits put out a shingle with a new website and go around asking the usual suspects for money to get them up and running.
Partisan Journalists Are Following the Money All Too Literally John Avlon November 13, 2012

Historical Examples

I put out a shingle ‘Boarders Wanted,’ and got two the same day.
Dust of New York Konrad Bercovici

On the other side of the town stretched some miles of shingle at the foot of the cliffs.
Cleo The Magnificent Louis Zangwill

His point of vantage was in the approximate center of an island of sand and shingle, a mile long, perhaps, by half a mile wide.
Dorothy Dixon and the Mystery Plane Dorothy Wayne

Every shutter and every shingle seemed to be loose and complaining of the fact.
Thankful’s Inheritance Joseph C. Lincoln

The walk was less than two feet wide and roughly squared by pieces of shingle laid in the concrete, tip to tip.
Child and Country Will Levington Comfort

“It was blowing around just where I found the shingle,” she declared.
Shavings Joseph C. Lincoln

noun
a thin rectangular tile, esp one made of wood, that is laid with others in overlapping rows to cover a roof or a wall
a woman’s short-cropped hairstyle
(US & Canadian) a small signboard or nameplate fixed outside the office of a doctor, lawyer, etc
(Austral, informal) a shingle short, unintelligent or mentally subnormal
verb (transitive)
to cover (a roof or a wall) with shingles
to cut (the hair) in a short-cropped style
noun
coarse gravel, esp the pebbles found on beaches
a place or area strewn with shingle
verb
(transitive) (metallurgy) to hammer or squeeze the slag out of (iron) after puddling in the production of wrought iron
n.

“thin piece of wood,” c.1200, scincle, from Late Latin scindula (also the source of German Schindel), altered (by influence of Greek schidax “lath” or schindalmos “splinter”) from Latin scandula “roof tile,” from scindere “to cleave, split,” from PIE root *sked- “to split.” Meaning “small signboard” is first attested 1842. Sense of “woman’s short haircut” is from 1924; the verb meaning “to cut the hair so as to give the impression of overlapping shingles” is from 1857.

“loose stones on a seashore,” 1510s, probably related to Norwegian singl “small stones,” or North Frisian singel “gravel,” both said to be echoic of the sound of water running over pebbles.
v.

“cover with shingles” (of houses), 1560s, from shingle (n.). Related: Shingled; shingling.

verb phrase

To court and flatter someone; curry favor; SUCKUPTO someone (1891+)
see: hang out one’s shingle