lag

adj

1. Late.

   “Some tardy cripple bore the countermand, / That came too lag to see him buried.”

2. (obsolete)Last; long-delayed.

   “the lag end of my life”

3. Last made; hence, made of refuse; inferior.

   “We know your thoughts of us, that laymen are lag souls, and rubbish of remaining clay.”

4. Loose (inclined to play many starting hands, including weak ones) and aggressive (inclined to raise often).

noun

1. (countable)A gap, a delay; an interval created by something not keeping up; a latency.

   “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.

   “Whatever 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.”

   “When the lag is low, 2 or 3 seconds perhaps, Internet chatters seem reasonably content.”

   “Latency, or lag, is an unavoidable part of Internet gaming.”

3. (Ireland, UK, archaic, countable, slang, uncountable)One sentenced to transportation for a crime.
4. (Ireland, UK, countable, slang, uncountable)A prisoner, a criminal.

   “On 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.”

   “He sat with his great head tipped forward, scowling with a lag's sullenness, and I swear he had closed off his hearing with his thinking and hadn't heard us coming. 'Father,' said Pym.”

5. (countable, slang, uncountable)A period of imprisonment.

   “I wasn't scared any more; the second lag wasn't easy, but I wasn't really scared of anything. […] So in my later lags, when I walked into prison everyone had heard about me.”

6. (countable, uncountable)A method of deciding which player is to 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.
7. (countable, uncountable)One who lags; that which comes in last.

   “the lag of all the flock”

8. (countable, uncountable)The fag-end; the rump; hence, the lowest class.

   “The reſt of your Fees, O Gods, the Senators of Athens, together with the common lagge of People, what is amiſſe in them, you Gods, make ſuteable for deſtruction.”

9. (countable, uncountable)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.
10. (US, abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, countable, uncountable)Clipping of lag screw.
11. (countable, uncountable)A bird, the greylag.

verb

1. To fail to keep up (the pace), to fall behind.

   “Behind 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.”

   “Lazy 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 hands While he, whose tardy feet had lagg'd behind, / Was doom'd the sad reward of death to find.”

   “Brown skeletons of leaves that lag / My forest-brook along”

   “Over 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.

   “Spun glass mattresses are used for lagging the boiler, which has three Ross pop safety valves on the front ring.”

   “Outside seems old enough: / Red brick, lagged pipes, and someone walking by it / Out to the car park, free.”

3. (informal)To respond slowly.

   “My phone is starting to lag.”

4. (UK, archaic, slang)To transport as a punishment for crime.

   “She lags us if we poach.”

5. (UK, archaic, slang)To arrest or apprehend.

   “"We must get the old dear out," said Lord Roxton to Malone. "He'll be had for manslaughter if we don't. What I mean, he's not responsible - he'll sock someone and be lagged for it."”

6. (transitive)To slacken

   “Interest in the scandal will never lag.”

   “The weight would lagge thee that art wont to flye.”