lag

Meanings

Adjective

• late
• Last; long-delayed.
• Last made; hence, made of refuse; inferior.

Noun

• A gap, a delay; an interval created by something not keeping up; a latency.
• Delay; latency.
• One sentenced to transportation for a crime.
• a prisoner, a criminal.
• A method of deciding which player shall 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.
• One who lags; that which comes in last.
• The fag-end; the rump; hence, the lowest class.
• A stave of a cask, drum, etc.; especially 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.
• A bird, the greylag.

Verb

• to fail to keep up (the pace), to fall behind
• to cover (for example, pipes) with felt strips or similar material
• To transport as a punishment for crime.
• To arrest or apprehend.
• To cause to lag; to slacken.

Related

Similar words

• latency

Origin

• Origin uncertain, perhaps a dialectal adjective lag distorted from last, or of North Germanic origin, related to Norwegian lagga ("to go slowly").