flag
English
Pronunciation
- (UK, US) IPA(key): /flæɡ/
- (North American also) IPA(key): /fleɪɡ/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -æɡ, -eɪɡ
Etymology 1
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.
Noun
flag (plural flags)
- A piece of cloth, often decorated with an emblem, used as a visual signal or symbol.
- An exact representation of a flag (for example: a digital one used in websites).
- (nautical) A flag flown by a ship to show the presence on board of the admiral; the admiral himself, or his flagship.
- (nautical, often used attributively) A signal flag.
- (construction) Abbreviation of flagstone: a construction material used for paving, flooring, roofing or tiling
- The use of a flag, especially to indicate the start of a race or other event.
- (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.
- (computer science) In a command line interface, a command parameter requesting optional behavior or otherwise modifying the action of the command being invoked.
- (British) An abbreviation for capture the flag.
- (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.
- 1994, John Ratcliffe, Foundations of Hyperbolic Manifolds, page 230,
- (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
|
|
|
|
|
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
|
Verb
Lua error in Module:en-headword at line 1152: Legacy parameter 1=STEM no longer supported, just use 'en-verb' without params
- To furnish or deck out with flags.
- To mark with a flag, especially to indicate the importance of something.
- 2011 January 8, Chris Bevan, “Arsenal 1 - 1 Leeds”, in BBC[1]:
- 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.
- (often with down) To signal to, especially to stop a passing vehicle etc.
- Please flag down a taxi for me.
- To convey (a message) by means of flag signals.
- to flag an order to troops or vessels at a distance
- (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.
- (computing) To signal (an event).
- The compiler flagged three errors.
- (computing) To set a program variable to true.
- Flag the debug option before running the program.
- To decoy (game) by waving a flag, handkerchief, etc. to arouse the animal's curiosity.
- (Can we date this quote?), 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.
- (Can we date this quote?), Theodore Roosevelt, Hunting Trips of a Ranchman
- (sports) To penalize for an infraction.
- The defender was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct.
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
Lua error in Module:en-headword at line 1152: Legacy parameter 1=STEM no longer supported, just use 'en-verb' without params
- (intransitive) To weaken, become feeble.
- His strength flagged toward the end of the race.
- (Can we date this quote by Jonathan Swift and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- 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[2]:
- 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.
- To hang loose without stiffness; to bend down, as flexible bodies; to be loose, yielding, limp.
- (Can we date this quote by T. Moore and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- as loose it [the sail] flagged around the mast
- (Can we date this quote by T. Moore and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- 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?)
- To enervate; to exhaust the vigour or elasticity of.
- (Can we date this quote by Echard and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- Nothing so flags the spirits.
- (Can we date this quote by Echard and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
Translations
|
Etymology 3
Of uncertain origin; compare Danish flæg.
Noun
flag (plural flags)
- Any of various plants with sword-shaped leaves, especially irises; specifically, Iris pseudacorus.
- ca. 1607, William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Act I, sc. 3:
- [T]he ebbed man, ne'er loved till ne'er worth love,
- Comes deared by being lacked. This common body,
- Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream,
- Goes to and back, lackeying the varying tide,
- To rot itself with motion.
- 1611, King James Version, Job 8:11:
- Can the rush grow up without mire? can the flag grow without water?
- 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.
- ca. 1607, William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Act I, sc. 3:
Derived terms
Translations
|
Etymology 4
Probably of Scandinavian origin; compare Icelandic flag
Noun
flag (plural flags)
- (obsolete except in dialects) A slice of turf; a sod.
- A slab of stone; a flagstone, a flat piece of stone used for paving.
- (geology) Any hard, evenly stratified sandstone, which splits into layers suitable for flagstones.
Translations
|
Verb
Lua error in Module:en-headword at line 1152: Legacy parameter 1=STEM no longer supported, just use 'en-verb' without params
- (transitive) To pave with flagstones.
- Fred is planning to flag his patio this weekend.
Translations
|
Etymology 5
Noun
flag (plural flags)
- A group of feathers on the lower part of the legs of certain hawks, owls, etc.
- A group of elongated wing feathers in certain hawks.
- The bushy tail of a dog such as a setter.
- (music) A hook attached to the stem of a written note that assigns its rhythmic value
References
- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “flag”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Danish
Noun
flag n (singular definite flaget, plural indefinite flag)
Inflection
Verb
flag
Dutch
Etymology
Noun
flag m (plural flags, diminutive flagje n)
Icelandic
Etymology
From Old Norse.
Pronunciation
Noun
flag n (genitive singular flags, nominative plural flög)
Declension
Related terms
Portuguese
Etymology
Noun
flag m or f (plural s)
- (programming) flag (true-or-false variable)
- Synonym: booleano
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/æɡ
- Rhymes:English/eɪɡ
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Nautical
- en:Construction
- English abbreviations
- en:Computer science
- British English
- en:Geometry
- en:Mathematics
- en:Linear algebra
- English terms with quotations
- en:Computing
- en:Sports
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms derived from Old Norse
- English intransitive verbs
- Requests for date/Jonathan Swift
- Requests for date/T. Moore
- Requests for quotations/Prior
- Requests for date/Echard
- English terms with obsolete senses
- en:Geology
- English transitive verbs
- en:Music
- English basic words
- en:Flowers
- en:Iris family plants
- Danish lemmas
- Danish nouns
- Danish neuter nouns
- Danish non-lemma forms
- Danish verb forms
- Dutch terms borrowed from English
- Dutch terms derived from English
- Dutch lemmas
- Dutch nouns
- Dutch nouns with plural in -s
- Dutch masculine nouns
- nl:Computing
- Icelandic terms derived from Old Norse
- Icelandic 1-syllable words
- Icelandic terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Icelandic/aːɣ
- Icelandic lemmas
- Icelandic nouns
- Icelandic neuter nouns
- Icelandic countable nouns
- Portuguese terms borrowed from English
- Portuguese terms derived from English
- Portuguese lemmas
- Portuguese nouns
- Portuguese countable nouns
- Portuguese masculine nouns
- Portuguese feminine nouns
- Portuguese nouns with multiple genders
- pt:Programming