flag

plural flags

1. countableA piece of cloth, often decorated with an emblem, used as a visual signal or symbol.

   The vote in the Bundestag (parliament) on Thursday makes defiling foreign flags equal to the crime of defiling the German flag. […] The new law also applies to acts of defilement besides burning, such as publicly ripping a flag up.

   2020 May 15, “Burning EU and other flags can now bring German jail term”, in BBC, archived from the original on 04 Jun 2025

2. countableuncountableThe design that could be placed on a flag, typically a rectangular graphic that is used to represent an entity (like a country, organisation or group of people) or an idea.

   The flag of France has three vertical stripes.

3. countableuncountablenauticalA flag flown by a ship to show the presence on board of the admiral; the admiral himself, or his flagship.
4. attributivecountableoftenuncountablenauticalA signal flag.
5. countableuncountableThe use of a flag, especially to indicate the start of a race or other event.
6. countableuncountablecomputerA variable or memory location that stores a Boolean 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.

   Synonyms: Boolean

7. countableuncountablecomputerIn a command line interface, a command parameter requesting optional behavior or otherwise modifying the action of the command being invoked.

   This will be used as a help message if the user passes in the --help flag, like so: […]

   2021, Angel Sola Orbaiceta, Hardcore Programming for Mechanical Engineers, pages 19–2

   Synonyms: switch

8. countableuncountableaeronauticsA mechanical indicator that pops up to draw the pilot's attention to a problem or malfunction.

   […] and then the OFF flag popped up and the needle went dead.

   1980, Paul Garrison, Flying VFR in marginal weather, page 139

   1 more example

   I was shooting an IFR approach down the San Francisco slot, when all of a sudden the ILS flag popped up.

   1966, Barry J. Schiff, All about Flying: An Introduction to the World of Flying, page 72

9. UKuncountableThe game of capture the flag.
10. countableuncountablegeometryA 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.

    We call P (combinatorially) regular if its automorphism group Γ(P) is transitive on its flags.

    2002, Peter McMullen, Egon Schulte, Abstract Regular Polytopes, Encyclopedia of Mathematics and Its Applications 92, page 31

    2 more examples

    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.

    1994, John Ratcliffe, Foundations of Hyperbolic Manifolds, page 230

    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.

    2006, Peter McMullen, Egon Schulte, “Regular and Chiral Polytopes in Low Dimensions”, in Harold Scott Macdonald Coxeter, Chandler Davis, Erich W. Ellers, editors, The Coxeter Legacy: Reflections and Projections, page 91

11. countableuncountablelinear algebraA 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.
12. countableuncountablebroadcastingA dark piece of material that can be mounted on a stand to block or shape the light.

    Flags and other cutters allow the DP or gaffer to throw large controlled shadows on parts of the scene.

    2012, John Jackman, Lighting for Digital Video and Television, page 86

    1 more example

    At the other extreme, with limitless budgets all they have to do is dream up amazing lighting rigs to be constructed and operated by the huge team of gaffers and sparks, with their generators, discharge lights, flags, gobos and brutes.

    1999, Des Lyver, Graham Swainson, Basics of Video Lighting, page 103

13. UKarchaiccountableslanguncountableAn apron.

    Suppose you try a different tack, / And on the square you flash your flag?

    1887, William Ernest Henley, Villon's Straight Tip to All Cross Coves

14. InternetcountableuncountableACGAn indication that a certain outcome or event is going to happen, deduced not logically or causally, but as a pattern in a piece of media. Chiefly used in video games and adjacent media, especially visual novels, it is typically described as being raised or set by the plot or words of a character.

    set a death flag

    1 more example

    raise the heroine's flags (in a galge)

15. UKcountableobsoleteslanguncountableA groat; fourpence.

    […] the orator pulled out a tremendous black doll, bought for a ‘flag’ (fourpence) of a retired rag-merchant, and dressed up in Oriental style.

    1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, published 1861

present singular third person flags · participle present flagging · participle past flagged · past flagged

1. To furnish or deck out with flags.
2. To mark with a flag, especially to indicate the importance of something.

   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.

   2011 January 8, Chris Bevan, “Arsenal 1 - 1 Leeds”, in BBC

3. oftenwith downTo signal to, especially to stop a passing vehicle etc.

   Please flag down a taxi for me.

   1 more example

   The electric locomotive is accompanied by a shunter who, in addition to his normal duties, flags the trains over the unprotected level crossings and opens the gates through which the line passes.

   1957 December 28, H. R. Stones, “The Hellingly Hospital Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 872

4. To convey (a message) by means of flag signals.

   to flag an order to troops or vessels at a distance

5. oftenwith upTo note, mark or point out for attention.

   I've flagged up the need for further investigation into this.

   1 more example

   Users of the Internet forum can flag others' posts as inappropriate.

6. computingTo signal (an event).

   The compiler flagged three errors.

7. computingTo set a program variable to true.

   Flag the debug option before running the program.

8. To decoy (game) by waving a flag, handkerchief, etc. to arouse the animal's curiosity.

   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.

   1885, Theodore Roosevelt, Hunting Trips of a Ranchman

9. hobbiesTo penalize for an infraction.

   The defender was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct.

10. intransitiveboard gamesTo lose on time, especially in a blitz game; when using a traditional analog chess clock, a flag would fall when time expired.

    Mark Dvoretsky (2014), For Friends & Colleagues, volume 1, →ISBN: “Indeed, I usually spent an hour to an hour and a half on my game, never found myself in time pressure, never once flagged in my entire life, except in blitz games, of course.”

11. transitiveboard gamesTo defeat (an opponent) on time, especially in a blitz game.

    White was winning positionally, but Black managed to flag him and win.

12. engineeringTo point the muzzle of a firearm at a person or object one does not intend to fire on.
13. To fail, such as a class or an exam.

    After he flagged Algebra, Mike was ineligible for the football team.

14. biologyIn female canids, to signal mating readiness by moving the tail aside to expose the vulva.

    She will avert her tail to the side (flagging), standing still when the male mounts.

    2011 January 3, Pete Haswell, “Life and Behaviour of Wolves”, in Wolf Print

    1 more example

    During estrus, most bitches will flirt with males by backing up to them, flagging their tails in the males’ faces, urinating frequently, and generally acting seductive.

    1996, The Complete Book of Dog Breeding, page 9

present singular third person flags · participle present flagging · participle past flagged · past flagged

1. intransitiveTo weaken, become feeble.

   His strength flagged toward the end of the race.

   3 more examples

   He now sees a spirit has been raised against him, and he only watches till it begin to flag.

   1724, Jonathan Swift, “Drapier's Letters”, in 2

   About half way to Wamphray, they met Mitchell's engine. Her speed was flagging badly. Steam was low, and the fire nearly out.

   1950 January, David L. Smith, “A Runaway at Beattock”, in Railway Magazine, page 54

   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.

   2012 December 29, Paul Doyle, “Arsenal's Theo Walcott hits hat-trick in thrilling victory over Newcastle”, in The Guardian

2. To hang loose without stiffness; to bend down, as flexible bodies; to be loose, yielding, limp.

   as loose it [the sail] flagged around the mast

   1817, Thomas Moore, Lalla Rookh […] , London: Longman […]

3. To let droop; to suffer to fall, or let fall, into feebleness.

   The Thousand Loves , that arm thy potent Eye , Must drop their Quivers , flag their Wings

   1709, Mat[thew] Prior, “An Ode”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC

4. To enervate; to exhaust the vigour or elasticity of.

   there is nothing that flags the Spirits, disorders the Blood, and enfeebles the whole Body of Man, as intense Studies.

   1670, John Eachard, The Ground and Occasions of the Contempt of the Clergy

plural flags

1. Any of various plants with sword-shaped leaves, especially irises; specifically, Iris pseudacorus.

   Can the rush grow up without mire? can the flag grow without water?

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 8:11

   2 more examples

   [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.

   c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]

   And laden barges float By banks of myosote; And scented flag and golden flower-de-lys Delay the loitering boat.

   before 1899, Robert Seymour Bridges, There is a Hill

plural flags

1. obsolete except in dialectsA slice of turf; a sod.
2. A slab of stone; a flagstone, a flat piece of stone used for paving.

   “Huliganï,” fumed Pnin, shaking his head—and slipped slightly on a flag of the path that meandered down a turfy slope among the leafless elms.

   1957 March 7, Vladimir Nabokov, chapter 3.6, in Pnin, Heinemann, page 73

   1 more example

   On market days the farmers would come in before going home - Tysons and Lindsays and Birketts and Longmires and Boows and Dawsons - and their dogs would lie in heaps on the flags while they themselves supped Gerald's ale.

   1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 60

3. geographyAny hard, evenly stratified sandstone, which splits into layers suitable for flagstones.

present singular third person flags · participle present flagging · participle past flagged · past flagged

1. transitiveTo pave with flagstones.

   Fred is planning to flag his patio this weekend.

plural flags

1. A group of feathers on the lower part of the legs of certain hawks, owls, etc.
2. A group of elongated wing feathers in certain hawks.
3. The bushy tail of a dog such as a setter.
4. entertainmentA hook attached to the stem of a written note that assigns its rhythmic value