Category:Lag

Lag, a. Etym: [Of Celtic origin: cf. Gael. & Ir. lagweak, feeble, faint, W. llag, llac, slack, loose, remiss, sluggish; prob. akin to E. lax, languid.]

1. Coming tardily after or behind; slow; tardy. [Obs.] Came too lag to see him buried. Shak.

2. Last; long-delayed; -- obsolete, except in the phrase lag end. "The lag end of my life." Shak.

3. Last made; hence, made of refuse; inferior. [Obs.] "Lag souls." Dryden.

lag Lag, n.

1. One who lags; that which comes in last. [Obs.] "The lag of all the flock." Pope.

2. The fag-end; the rump; hence, the lowest class. The common lag of people. Shak.

3. The amount of retardation of anything, as of a valve in a steam engine, in opening or closing.

4. A stave of a cask, drum, etc.; especially (Mach.), one of the narrow boards or staves forming the covering of a cylindrical object, as a boiler, or the cylinder of a carding machine or a steam engine.

5. (Zoöl.)

Defn: See Graylag. Lag of the tide, the interval by which the time of high water falls behind the mean time, in the first and third quarters of the moon; -- opposed to priming of the tide, or the acceleration of the time of high water, in the second and fourth quarters; depending on the relative positions of the sun and moon. -- Lag screw, an iron bolt with a square head, a sharp-edged thread, and a sharp point, adapted for screwing into wood; a screw for fastening lags.

lag Lag, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Lagged; p. pr. & vb. n. Lagging.]

Defn: To walk or more slowly; to stay or fall behind; to linger or loiter. "I shall not lag behind." Milton.

Syn. -- To loiter; linger; saunter; delay; be tardy.

lag Lag, v. t.

1. To cause to lag; to slacken. [Obs.] "To lag his flight." Heywood.

2. (Mach.)

Defn: To cover, as the cylinder of a steam engine, with lags. See Lag, n., 4.

lag Lag, n.

Defn: One transported for a crime. [Slang, Eng.]

lag Lag, v. t.

Defn: To transport for crime. [Slang, Eng.] She lags us if we poach. De Quincey.