sag off

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

sag off (third-person singular simple present sags off, present participle sagging off, simple past and past participle sagged off)

1. To skive; to fail to attend school when required to do so.
   • 1995, Angela Devlin, Criminal classes: offenders at school, page 109:

     "I was in the third year at school and I was sagging off with a few of my mates. We were on a building site and two of us got arrested and given a caution. "

   • 2008, Katie Flynn, Sunshine and Shadows, page 280:

     And you were academically bright, which I certainly had not expected, because Maggie told me how you were always sagging off school, only going in a couple of times a term to fetch books because you were an avid reader.

2. (basketball, lacrosse) To back off from an opponent against whom one is defending.
   • 1978, Robert Scott, Lacrosse: Technique and Tradition, →ISBN, page 101:

     The defender playing the man with the ball meets him at the perimeter. The other five defenders will "sag off"their men at varying distances, which are determined by the location of the offensive players. The defender can sag only to the point where he can effectively guard his man if he were to receive the ball.

   • 2002, Clay Kallam, Girls' Basketball: Building a Winning Program, page 51:

     Instead, the on-ball defender (in zone or man) will sag off toward the basket, cutting off passing lanes and adding more help to the interior.

   • 2009, Fran Dunphy, Lawrence Hsieh, The Baffled Parent's Guide to Great Basketball Plays, page 89:

     If Daniel is out of shooting range when he gives up his dribble, consider having the defender sag off the ball toward the basket and anticipate the next pass. (Note that sagging off is recommended only for advanced players with good judgement).

   • 2012, Hal Wissel, Basketball-3rd Edition: Steps to Success, →ISBN, page 321:

     When you are on the weak side, sag off your opponent and form an imaginary flat triangle between you, your opponent, and the ball.

3. (nautical) To move too far leeward when sailing on the wind.
   • 1982 January, Jerry Cartwright, “Cruising Seamanship”, in Motorboating & Sailing, volume 149, number 2, page 23:

     The more the backstay is tightened, the less the headstay will sag off to leeward, forming a rigid and more efficient arc along the luff of the genoa while beating to weather.

   • 2008, Peter Smalley, The Hawk, →ISBN:

     The helmsman allowed her to sag off a little as she rode the wave, and Rennie drew breath to say something — and had to bite his tongue.

   • 2008, Ian Proctor, Racing Dinghy Maintenance, page 120:

     The effect of this downwards pull is to eliminate excessive twist and sagging off to leeward at the head of the sail and to allow a little more flow or belly near the luff.

   • 2015, Ian Nicolson, The Ian Nicolson Trilogy, →ISBN:

     If we missed stays and failed to tack we would sag off to leeward, onto the sandbank.

4. (stock market) To fall in share price.
   • 1917, Paint, Oil and Drug Review - Volume 63, page 54:

     That was considered to be largely in sympathy with the course of the wheat market and a willingness on the part of crushers to permit quotations to sag off before according fresh support.

   • 1923, Architectural Forum - Volume 39, Part 1, page 68:

     Iron and steel prices continued to sag off during the past month.

   • 2014, Henry Voorce Brandenburg, Profitable Stock Exchange Investments, →ISBN, page 25:

     One in which prices barely hold their own, and are inclined to sag off a little during the day, closing lower than they opened.

5. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see sag,‎ off.

   His trousers were sagging off his legs.

Anagrams

• off-gas, offgas