Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Lag?

\Lag\, a. [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\, 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. (Zo["o]l.) 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\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Lagged}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Lagging}.] 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\, v. t. 1. To cause to lag; to slacken. [Obs.] ``To lag his flight.'' --Heywood. 2. (Mach.) To cover, as the cylinder of a steam engine, with lags. See {Lag}, n., 4.
\Lag\, n. One transported for a crime. [Slang, Eng.]
\Lag\, v. t. To transport for crime. [Slang, Eng.] She lags us if we poach. --De Quincey.
\Lag\, n. 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.