flagging

/ˈflæɡɪŋ/

flagging is the present participle and gerund of flag.

Noun

flagging (countable and uncountable, plural flaggings)

A pavement or sidewalk of flagstones; flagstones, collectively.
The process by which something flags or tires.
- 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 […]1712 April 22 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “FRIDAY, April 12, 1712”, in The Spectator, number 351; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New...
The skewing or bending of the upper part of a television picture due to imperfect synchronization of the video signal.
- 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.1998, Robert Brenner, Gregory Capelo, VCR Troubleshooting and Repair, page 158
Use of a handkerchief code or analogous display to signal sexual interests.

flag (third-person singular simple present flags, present participle flagging, simple past and past participle flagged)

To furnish or deck out with flags.
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
(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.
To signal (an event).
- The compiler flagged three errors.

flagging

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

plural	flaggings

What does flagging mean?: Flagging means becoming tired or less dynamic; declining in strength; dwindling.
What is flagging the present participle and gerund of?: Flagging is the present participle and gerund of flag.
What part of speech is flagging?: Flagging can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce flagging?: Flagging is pronounced /ˈflæɡɪŋ/.

Adapted from Wiktionary: flagging (page history and authors); flag (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-flagging.wav.

Cite this entry: “flagging.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/flagging. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.