Lag
Lag , adjective
[Of Celtic origin: compare Gael. & Ir. lagweak, feeble, faint, Welsh llag, llac, slack, loose, remiss, sluggish; prob. akin to English lax, languid.]
1.
Coming tardily after or behind; slow; tardy. [Obsolete]
Came too lag to see him buried.
2.
Last; long-delayed; -- obsolete, except in the phrase lag end.
The lag end of my life.
3.
Last made; hence, made of refuse; inferior. [Obsolete]
Lag souls.
Lag , noun
1.
One who lags; that which comes in last. [Obsolete]
The lag of all the flock.
2.
The fag-end; the rump; hence, the lowest class.
The common lag of people.
3.
The amount of retardation of anything, as of a valve in a steam engine, in opening or closing.
4.
(Machinery) A stave of a cask, drum, etc.;
(Machinery) 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.
(Zoology) See Graylag.
6.
The failing behind or retardation of one phenomenon with respect to another to which it is closely related; as, the lag of magnetization compared with the magnetizing force (hysteresis); the lag of the current in an alternating circuit behind the impressed electro-motive force which produced it.
Collocations (2)
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 , intransitive verb
To walk or more slowly; to stay or fall behind; to linger or loiter.
I shall not lag behind.
Lag , transitive verb
1.
To cause to lag; to slacken. [Obsolete]
To lag his flight.
2.
(Machinery) To cover, as the cylinder of a steam engine, with lags. See Lag, n., 4.
Lag , noun
One transported for a crime. [Slang, English]
Lag , transitive verb
To transport for crime. [Slang, English]
She lags us if we poach.