flagging

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈflæɡɪŋ/
• Rhymes: -æɡɪŋ

Verb

flagging

1. present participle and gerund of flag

Adjective

flagging

1. Becoming tired or less dynamic; declining in strength; dwindling.
   • 1960 August, L. Hyland, “The Irish Scene”, in Trains Illustrated, page 467:

     These cars without doubt were the salvation of the C.I.E. network, as they provided fast, economical services with a degree of comfort which did much to retrieve a flagging passenger traffic.

Noun

flagging (countable and uncountable, plural flaggings)

1. A pavement or sidewalk of flagstones; flagstones, collectively.
2. The process by which something flags or tires.
   • 1712 April 23 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “SATURDAY, April 12, 1712”, in The Spectator, number 351; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume IV, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:

     That secret intoxication of pleasure, with all those transient flushings of guilt and joy, which the poet represents in our first parents upon their eating the forbidden fruit, to those flaggings of spirit, damps of sorrow, and mutual accusations which succeed it […]

     The spelling has been modernized.

3. (television) The skewing or bending of the upper part of a television picture due to imperfect synchronization of the video signal.
   • 1998, Robert Brenner, Gregory Capelo, VCR Troubleshooting and Repair, page 158:

     Because older TVs are not able to respond quickly enough to the horizontal time-base errors introduced from the VCR, a VCR connected to an older TV may cause severe bending or flagging at the top of the picture yet appear to operate normally on a newer TV set.

4. Use of a handkerchief code or analogous display to signal sexual interests.

Derived terms

• false flagging

Translations

pavement or sidewalk of flagstones

• Bulgarian: плочник m (pločnik)
• Finnish: laatoitus (fi)

tiring or exhausting, such as after exercise

• Finnish: väsyminen (fi)

References

• “flagging”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.