lag

views updated May 14 2018

lag1 / lag/ • v. (lagged, lag·ging) [intr.] fall behind in movement, progress, or development; not keep pace with another or others: they stopped to wait for one of the children who was lagging behind.• n. 1. (also time lag) a period of time between one event or phenomenon and another: there was a time lag between the commission of the crime and its reporting to the police.2. Physics a retardation in an electric current or movement.DERIVATIVES: lag·ger n.lag2 • v. (lagged, lag·ging) [tr.] (usu. be lagged) enclose or cover (a boiler, pipes, etc.) with material that provides heat insulation: [as adj.] (lagged) a lagged hot-water tank. • n. the nonheat-conducting cover of a boiler, etc.; lagging. ∎  a piece of this.DERIVATIVES: lag·ger n.lag3 chiefly Brit., inf. • n. a person who has been frequently convicted and sent to prison: both old lags were sentenced to ten years' imprisonment.• v. (lagged , lag·ging ) [tr.] archaic arrest or send to prison.

lag

views updated May 08 2018

lag A normal, dip-slip fault, dipping less than 45°, on which there has been a relative downward displacement of the hanging wall. See also FAULT.

lag

views updated Jun 27 2018

lag1 fail to keep pace, fall behind. XVI. contemp. with lag sb.1 last or hindmost person, and adj. hindmost, falling behind, which may be a perversion of LAST3 in fog, seg, lag, used dial. in children's games for ‘first, second, last’.

lag

views updated May 17 2018

lag3 stave of a barrel XVII; lath or strip of material in a covering or casing (whence vb.) XIX. prob. of Scand. orig., cf. ON. lǫgg rim of a barrel, f. Gmc. *laʒ-LAY1.

lag

views updated May 18 2018

lag2 †carry off, steal XVI; (sl.) transport, apprehend XIX. of unkn. orig.
Hence lag sb.2 (sl.) convict; term of penal servitude. XIX.

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