half-staff
half-staff noun: half-mast.
Noun
half-staff (plural half-staffs)
- Half-mast.
- [T]he agents of the steamship lines drowned their sorrow in rum and ran the house flags to half-staff.c. 1900, Richard Harding Davis, Billy and the Big Stick
- Marshal Joseph Pilsudski, Poland's man of power, died here tonight. . . . Flags were lowered to half staffs.1935 May 13, “Ninth Anniversary of Coup”, in New York Times, page 6
Examples of half-staff in a sentence
- President Bush's decision to honor Pope John Paul II by ordering flags lowered to half-staff on all public buildings has reignited a debate about the separation of church and state.2005 April 6, Felisa Cardona, “Flag order spurs controversy”, in Denver Post, archived from the original on 07 Mar 2016, retrieved 29 Aug...
- [T]he flags at Ottawa fire stations were lowered to half-staff in tribute.2008 August 5, “Two men electrocuted fixing flat on firetruck”, in Ottawa Citizen, Canada, retrieved 29 Aug 2011:
Forms of half-staff
| plural | half-staffs |
|---|---|
| alternative form | half staff |
| alternative form | halfstaff |
Questions about half-staff
- What does half-staff mean?
- Half-staff means half-mast.
- How do you use half-staff in a sentence?
- President Bush's decision to honor Pope John Paul II by ordering flags lowered to half-staff on all public buildings has reignited a debate about the separation of church and state.
- What part of speech is half-staff?
- Half-staff is a noun.
- What is the plural of half-staff?
- The plural of half-staff is half-staffs.
Words near half-staff in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: half-staff (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.
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Cite this entry: “half-staff.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/half-staff. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.