Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

Flag

Flag

(flăg)
,
Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Flagged
(flăgd)
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Flagging
(flăg′gĭng)
.]
[Cf. Icel.
flaka
to droop, hang loosely. Cf.
Flacker
,
Flag
an ensign.]
1.
To hang loose without stiffness; to bend down, as flexible bodies; to be loose, yielding, limp.
As loose it [the sail]
flagged
around the mast.
T. Moore.
2.
To droop; to grow spiritless; to lose vigor; to languish;
as, the spirits
flag
; the strength
flags
.
Syn. – To droop; decline; fail; languish; pine.

Flag

(flăg)
,
Verb.
T.
1.
To let droop; to suffer to fall, or let fall, into feebleness;
as, to
flag
the wings
.
prior.
2.
To enervate; to exhaust the vigor or elasticity of.
Nothing so
flags
the spirits.
Echard.

Flag

,
Noun.
[Cf. LG. & G.
flagge
, Sw.
flagg
, Dan.
flag
, D.
vlag
. See
Flag
to hang loose.]
1.
That which flags or hangs down loosely.
2.
A cloth usually bearing a device or devices and used to indicate nationality, party, etc., or to give or ask information; – commonly attached to a staff to be waved by the wind; a standard; a banner; an ensign; the colors;
as, the national
flag
; a military or a naval
flag
.
3.
(Zool.)
(a)
A group of feathers on the lower part of the legs of certain hawks, owls, etc.
(b)
A group of elongated wing feathers in certain hawks.
(c)
The bushy tail of a dog, as of a setter.
Black flag
.
See under
Black
.
–
Flag captain
,
Flag leutenant
,
etc., special officers attached to the flagship, as aids to the flag officer.
–
Flag officer
,
the commander of a fleet or squadron; an admiral, or commodore.
–
Flag of truse
,
a white flag carried or displayed to an enemy, as an invitation to conference, or for the purpose of making some communication not hostile.
–
Flag share
,
the flag officer’s share of prize money.
–
Flag station
(Railroad)
,
a station at which trains do not stop unless signaled to do so, by a flag hung out or waved.
–
National flag
,
a flag of a particular country, on which some national emblem or device, is emblazoned.
–
Red flag
,
a flag of a red color, displayed as a signal of danger or token of defiance; the emblem of anarchists.
–
To dip, the flag
,
to mlower it and quickly restore it to its place; – done as a mark of respect.
–
To hang out the white flag
,
to ask truce or quarter, or, in some cases, to manifest a friendly design by exhibiting a white flag.
–
To hang the flag half-mast high
or
To hang the flag half-staff
or
To hang the flag at half-staff
,
to raise it only half way to the mast or staff, as a token or sign of mourning.
–
To strike the flag
or
To lower the flag
,
to haul it down, in token of respect, submission, or, in an engagement, of surrender.
–
Yellow flag
,
the quarantine flag of all nations; also carried at a vessel's fore, to denote that an infectious disease is on board.

Flag

,
Verb.
T.
[From
Flag
an ensign.]
1.
To signal to with a flag or by waving the hand;
as, to
flag
a train
; also used with
down
;
as, to
flag down
a cab
.
2.
To convey, as a message, by means of flag signals;
as, to
flag
an order to troops or vessels at a distance
.

Flag

,
Noun.
[From
Flag
to hang loose, to bend down.]
(Bot.)
An aquatic plant, with long, ensiform leaves, belonging to either of the genera
Iris
and
Acorus
.
Cooper's flag
,
the cat-tail (
Typha latifolia
), the long leaves of which are placed between the staves of barrels to make the latter water-tight.
–
Corn flag
.
See under 2d
Corn
.
–
Flag broom
,
a coarse of broom, originally made of flags or rushes.
–
Flag root
,
the root of the sweet flag.
–
Sweet flag
.
See
Calamus
,
Noun.
, 2.

Flag

,
Verb.
T.
To furnish or deck out with flags.

Flag

,
Noun.
[Icel.
flaga
, cf. Icel.
flag
spot where a turf has been cut out, and E.
flake
layer, scale. Cf.
Floe
.]
1.
A flat stone used for paving.
Woodward.
2.
(Geol.)
Any hard, evenly stratified sandstone, which splits into layers suitable for flagstones.

Flag

,
Verb.
T.
To lay with flags of flat stones.
The sides and floor are all
flagged
with . . . marble.
Sandys.

Definition 2024

flag

flag

English

Noun

flag ‎(plural flags)

  1. A piece of cloth, often decorated with an emblem, used as a visual signal or symbol.
  2. An exact representation of a flag (for example: a digital one used in websites).
  3. (nautical) A flag flown by a ship to show the presence on board of the admiral; the admiral himself, or his flagship.
  4. (nautical, often used attributively) A signal flag.
  5. (construction) Abbreviation of flagstone: a construction material used for paving, flooring, roofing or tiling
  6. The use of a flag, especially to indicate the start of a race or other event.
  7. (computer science) A variable or memory location that stores a true-or-false, yes-or-no value, typically either recording the fact that a certain event has occurred or requesting that a certain optional action take place.
  8. (computer science) In a command line interface, a command parameter requesting optional behavior or otherwise modifying the action of the command being invoked.
  9. (Britain) An abbreviation for capture the flag.
  10. (geometry) A sequence of faces of a given polytope, one of each dimension up to that of the polytope (formally, though in practice not always explicitly, including the null face and the polytope itself), such that each face in the sequence is part of the next-higher dimension face.
    • 1994, John Ratcliffe, Foundations of Hyperbolic Manifolds, page 230,
      A flag of P is a sequence (F0, F1, ..., Fm) of faces of P such that dim Fi = i for each i and Fi is a side of Fi+1 for each i < m. […] A regular polytope in X is a polytope P in X whose group of symmetries in <P> acts transitively on its flags.
    • 2002, Peter McMullen, Egon Schulte, Abstract Regular Polytopes, Encyclopedia of Mathematics and Its Applications 92, page 31,
      We call P (combinatorially) regular if its automorphism group Γ(P) is transitive on its flags.
    • 2006, Peter McMullen, Egon Schulte, Regular and Chiral Polytopes in Low Dimensions, Harold Scott Macdonald Coxeter, Chandler Davis, Erich W. Ellers (editors), The Coxeter Legacy: Reflections and Projections, page 91,
      Roughly speaking, chiral polytopes have half as many possible automorphisms as have regular polytopes. More technically, the n-polytope P is chiral if it has two orbits of flags under its group Γ(P), with adjacent flags in different orbits.
  11. (mathematics, linear algebra) A sequence of subspaces of a vector space, beginning with the null space and ending with the vector space itself, such that each member of the sequence (until the last) is a proper subspace of the next.
Synonyms
  • (computer science: true-or-false value): Boolean
  • (computer science: CLI notation): switch
  • (geometry: sequence of faces of a polytope): dart
Derived terms
Translations

Verb

flag ‎(third-person singular simple present flags, present participle flagging, simple past and past participle flagged)

  1. To furnish or deck out with flags.
  2. To mark with a flag, especially to indicate the importance of something.
    • 2011 January 8, Chris Bevan, “Arsenal 1 - 1 Leeds”, in BBC:
      Walcott was, briefly, awarded a penalty when he was upended in the box but referee Phil Dowd reversed his decision because Bendtner had been flagged offside.
  3. (often with down) To signal to, especially to stop a passing vehicle etc.
    Please flag down a taxi for me.
  4. To convey (a message) by means of flag signals.
    to flag an order to troops or vessels at a distance
  5. (often with up) To note, mark or point out for attention.
    I've flagged up the need for further investigation into this.
    Users of the Internet forum can flag others' posts as inappropriate.
  6. (computing) To signal (an event).
    The compiler flagged three errors.
  7. (computing) To set a program variable to true.
    Flag the debug option before running the program.
  8. To decoy (game) by waving a flag, handkerchief, etc. to arouse the animal's curiosity.
    • Theodore Roosevelt, Hunting Trips of a Ranchman
      This method of hunting, however, is not so much practised now as formerly, as the antelope are getting continually shyer and more difficult to flag.
Translations

See also

Etymology 2

Perhaps from a variant of flack ‎(“to hang loose”), from Middle English flacken; or perhaps from Old Norse.[1]. Compare Middle Dutch flaggheren, vlaggheren ‎(“to droop, flag”).

Verb

flag ‎(third-person singular simple present flags, present participle flagging, simple past and past participle flagged)

  1. (intransitive) To weaken, become feeble.
    His strength flagged toward the end of the race.
    • Jonathan Swift
      The pleasures of the town begin to flag.
    • 2012 December 29, Paul Doyle, “Arsenal's Theo Walcott hits hat-trick in thrilling victory over Newcastle”, in The Guardian:
      The sides took it in turns to err and excite before Newcastle flagged and Arsenal signalled their top-four credentials by blowing the visitors away.
  2. To hang loose without stiffness; to bend down, as flexible bodies; to be loose, yielding, limp.
    • T. Moore
      as loose it [the sail] flagged around the mast
  3. To let droop; to suffer to fall, or let fall, into feebleness.
    to flag the wings
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Prior to this entry?)
  4. To enervate; to exhaust the vigour or elasticity of.
    • Echard
      Nothing so flags the spirits.
Translations

Etymology 3

Of uncertain origin; compare Danish flæg.

Noun

flag ‎(plural flags)

  1. Any of various plants with sword-shaped leaves, especially irises; specifically, Iris pseudacorus.
    • before 1899, Robert Seymour Bridges, There is a Hill:
      And laden barges float
      By banks of myosote;
      And scented flag and golden flower-de-lys
      Delay the loitering boat.
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 4

Probably of Scandinavian origin; compare Icelandic flag

Noun

flag ‎(plural flags)

  1. (obsolete except in dialects) A slice of turf; a sod.
  2. A slab of stone; a flagstone, a flat piece of stone used for paving.
  3. (geology) Any hard, evenly stratified sandstone, which splits into layers suitable for flagstones.
Translations

Verb

flag ‎(third-person singular simple present flags, present participle flagging, simple past and past participle flagged)

  1. To lay down flagstones.
    • Fred is planning to flag his patio this weekend.
Translations

Etymology 5

Noun

flag ‎(plural flags)

  1. A group of feathers on the lower part of the legs of certain hawks, owls, etc.
  2. A group of elongated wing feathers in certain hawks.
  3. The bushy tail of a dog such as a setter.
  4. (music) A hook attached to the stem of a written note that assigns its rhythmic value

References

  1. ↑ “flag” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary (2001).

Danish

Noun

flag n (singular definite flaget, plural indefinite flag)

  1. flag (cloth)
  2. flag (true-false variable)

Inflection

Verb

flag

  1. imperative of flage

Dutch

Etymology

From English flag.

Noun

flag m ‎(plural flags, diminutive flagje n)

  1. (computing) flag

Icelandic

Etymology

From Old Norse.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /flaːɣ/
    Rhymes: -aːɣ

Noun

flag n ‎(genitive singular flags, nominative plural flög)

  1. area of ground stripped of turf

Declension

Related terms

Portuguese

Noun

flag m or f (in variation) (plural flags)

  1. (programming) flag (true-or-false variable)

Synonyms

Etymology

From Middle English flag, flagge ‎(“flag”), further etymology uncertain. Perhaps from or related to early Middle English flage ‎(“name for a baby's garment”) and Old English flagg, flacg ‎(“cataplasm, poultice, plaster”). Related to Saterland Frisian Flaage ‎(“flag”), West Frisian flagge ‎(“flag”), Dutch vlag ‎(“flag”), German Flagge ‎(“flag”), Swedish flagg ‎(“flag”), Danish flag ‎(“flag, ship's flag”). Compare also Middle English flacken ‎(“to flutter, palpitate”), Swedish dialectal flage ‎(“to flutter in the wind”), Old Norse flögra ‎(“to flap about”). Akin to Old High German flogarōn ‎(“to flutter”), Old High German flogezen ‎(“to flutter, flicker”), Middle English flakeren ‎(“to move quickly to and fro”), Old English flacor ‎(“fluttering, flying”). More at flack, flacker.

a flag

Pronunciation

  • (UK, US) IPA(key): /flæɡ/
  • (North American also) IPA(key): /fleɪɡ/, /flɛɡ/
  • Rhymes: -æɡ, -eɪɡ, -ɛ

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