to fail to maintain a desired pace or to keep up; fall or stay behind: After five minutes of hard running, some of them began to lag.
to move or develop slowly, as toward a goal or objective, or in relation to an associated factor (often followed by behind): to lag behind in production.
to delay or fail in reaching full development: The factory lags regularly in making its quota.
to hang back; linger; delay: The old friends lagged because they wanted to talk some more.
to decrease, wane, or flag gradually, as in intensity: Interest lagged as the meeting went on.
Marbles. to throw one's shooting marble toward a line (lag line) on the ground in order to decide on the order of play.
a person who lags behind, is the last to arrive, etc.
an interval or lapse of time: There was a developmental lag in the diffusion of ideas.
Mechanics. the amount of retardation of some motion.
Electricity. the retardation of one alternating quantity, as current, with respect to another related alternating quantity, as voltage, often expressed in degrees.
Marbles, Billiards. the act of lagging.
Origin of lag
1
1505–15; < Scandinavian: compare Norwegianlagga to go slowly
(often foll by behind)to hang (back) or fall (behind) in movement, progress, development, etc
to fall away in strength or intensity
to determine an order of play in certain games, as by rolling marbles towards a line or, in billiards, hitting cue balls up the table against the top cushion in an attempt to bring them back close to the headrail
noun
the act or state of slowing down or falling behind
the interval of time between two events, esp between an action and its effect
an act of lagging in a game, such as billiards
Word Origin for lag
C16: of obscure origin
lag
2
noun
a convict or ex-convict (esp in the phrase old lag)
a term of imprisonment
verblags, laggingorlagged
(tr)to arrest or put in prison
Word Origin for lag
C19: of unknown origin
lag
3
verblags, laggingorlagged
(tr)to cover (a pipe, cylinder, etc) with lagging to prevent loss of heat
noun
the insulating casing of a steam cylinder, boiler, etc; lagging
a stave or lath
Word Origin for lag
C17: of Scandinavian origin; related to Swedish lagg stave
"fail to keep pace," 1520s, earlier as a noun meaning "last person" (1510s), later also as an adjective (1550s; e.g. lag-mon "last man"), all of uncertain relationship, possibly from a Scandinavian source (cf. Norwegian lagga "go slowly"), or some dialectal version of last, lack, or delay. Related: Lag; lagging. The noun meaning "retardation" is from 1855. First record of lag time is from 1951.
