Lag

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /læɡ/
• North American also IPA: /leɪɡ/, IPA: /lɛɡ/
• Rhymes: -æɡ

Origin

Full definition of lag

Adjective

1. late
• 1592, William Shakespeare, King Richard IIISome tardy cripple bore the countermand,
  That came too lag to see him buried.
2. (obsolete) Last; long-delayed.
• Shakespearethe lag end of my life
3. Last made; hence, made of refuse; inferior.
• Drydenlag souls

Noun

1. (countable) A gap, a delay; an interval created by something not keeping up; a latency.
• 2004, May 10. The New Yorker Online,During the Second World War, for instance, the Washington Senators had a starting rotation that included four knuckleball pitchers. But, still, I think that some of that was just a generational lag.
2. (uncountable) Delay; latency.
• 1999, Loyd Case, Building the ultimate game PCWhatever 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.
• 2001, Patricia M. Wallace, The psychology of the InternetWhen the lag is low, 2 or 3 seconds perhaps, Internet chatters seem reasonably content.
• 2002, Marty Cortinas, Clifford Colby, The Macintosh bibleLatency, or lag, is an unavoidable part of Internet gaming.
3. (British, slang, archaic) One sentenced to transportation for a crime.
4. (British, slang) a prisoner, a criminal.
• 1934, P. G. Wodehouse, Thank You, JeevesOn 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. (snooker) 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.
6. One who lags; that which comes in last.
• Alexander Popethe lag of all the flock
7. The fag-end; the rump; hence, the lowest class.
• Shakespearethe common lag of people
8. 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.
9. A bird, the greylag.

Usage notes

In casual use, lag and latency are used synonymously for “delay between initiating an action and the effect”, with lag more casual. In formal use, latency is the technical term, while lag is used when latency is greater than usual, particularly in internet gaming.

Synonyms

• (delay) latency

Derived terms

• time lag
• jet lag
• lagging jacket
• lag screw

Verb

1. to fail to keep up (the pace), to fall behind
• 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Canto IBehind 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.
• 1616, George Chapman, The Odysseys of HomerLazy beast!
  Why last art thou now? Thou hast never used
  To lag thus hindmost
• 1717, The Metamorphoses of Ovid translated into English verse under the direction of Sir Samuel Garth by John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Joseph Addison, William Congreve and other eminent handsWhile he, whose tardy feet had lagg'd behind,
  Was doom'd the sad reward of death to find.
• 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in seven partsBrown skeletons of leaves that lag
  My forest-brook along
• 2004, — The New Yorker, 5 April 2004Over the next fifty years, by most indicators dear to economists, the country remained the richest in the world. But by another set of numbers—longevity and income inequality—it began to lag behind Northern Europe and Japan.
2. to cover (for example, pipes) with felt strips or similar material
• c. 1974, Philip Larkin, The BuildingOutside seems old enough:
  Red brick, lagged pipes, and someone walking by it
  Out to the car park, free.
3. (UK, slang, archaic) To transport as a punishment for crime.
• De QuinceyShe lags us if we poach.
4. (transitive) To cause to lag; to slacken.
• HeywoodTo lag his flight.

Derived terms

• lagging
• laggard

Anagrams

• AGL gal, Gal, Gal., GAL
• GLA