lag

adjective

1. Late. Some tardy cripple bore the countermand, / That came too lag to see him buried.
2. obsolete Last; long-delayed. the lag end of my life
3. Last made; hence, made of refuse; inferior. We know your thoughts of us, that laymen are lag souls, and rubbish of remaining clay.

noun lags

1. countable A gap, a delay; an interval created by something not keeping up; a latency. Although this work is now presented to the world at large, people who read through it before publication severally raised some issues that should be addressed. These resolve around the lag between the field research and the publication of the monograph, a period of rather more than two decades; the
2. uncountable Delay; latency. Whatever the symptom, lag is a drag. But what causes it? One cause is delays in getting the data from your PC to the game server.

   Similar: latency

3. Ireland, UK, archaic, countable, slang, uncountable One sentenced to transportation for a crime.
4. Ireland, UK, countable, slang, uncountable A prisoner, a criminal. On both these occasions I had ended up behind the bars, and you might suppose that an old lag like myself would have been getting used to it by now.
5. countable, slang, uncountable A period of imprisonment. I wasn't scared any more; the second lag wasn't easy, but I wasn't really scared of anything. […] So in my later lags, when I walked into prison everyone had heard about me.
6. countable, uncountable A method of deciding which player is to start. Both players simultaneously strike a cue ball from the baulk line to hit the top cushion and rebound down the table; the player whose ball finishes closest to the baulk cushion wins.
7. countable, uncountable One who lags; that which comes in last. the lag of all the flock
8. countable, uncountable The fag-end; the rump; hence, the lowest class. The reſt of your Fees, O Gods, the Senators of Athens, together with the common lagge of People, what is amiſſe in them, you Gods, make ſuteable for deſtruction.
9. countable, uncountable A stave of a cask, drum, etc.; especially (engineering) one of the narrow boards or staves forming the covering of a cylindrical object, such as a boiler, or the cylinder of a carding machine or steam engine.
10. US, abbreviation, clipping, countable, uncountable Clipping of lag screw
11. countable, uncountable A bird, the greylag.

verb lags · lagging · lagged

1. To fail to keep up (the pace), to fall behind. Behind her farre away a Dwarfe did lag, / That lasie seemd in being ever last, / Or wearied with bearing of her bag / Of needments at his backe.
2. To cover (for example, pipes) with felt strips or similar material. Spun glass mattresses are used for lagging the boiler, which has three Ross pop safety valves on the front ring.
3. informal To respond slowly. My phone is starting to lag.
4. UK, archaic, slang To transport as a punishment for crime. She lags us if we poach.
5. slang To arrest or apprehend. If a fellow gave them trouble being lagged they let him have it hot and heavy in the bridewell.
6. transitive To slacken Interest in the scandal will never lag.

adjective more LAG · most LAG

1. Loose (inclined to play many starting hands, including weak ones) and aggressive (inclined to raise often).

Opposite: TAG