lags

Noun

lag (countable and uncountable, plural lags)

1. (countable) A gap, a delay; an interval created by something not keeping up; a latency.
   • Although this work is now presented to the world at large, people who read through it before publication severally raised some issues that should be addressed. These resolve around the lag between the field research and the publication of the monograph, a period of rather more than two decades; the...1995, Donald R. DeGlopper, “Introduction”, in Lukang: Commerce and Community in a Chinese City, State University of New York Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 5
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.1999, Loyd Case, Building the ultimate game PC

   Synonyms:

   latency

3. (Ireland, UK, archaic, slang) One sentenced to transportation for a crime.
4. (Ireland, UK, slang) 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.1934, P. G. Wodehouse, Thank You, Jeeves
5. (slang) 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.2017, Anna Leask, Behind Bars: Real-life stories from inside New Zealand's prisons
6. 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.

See all 20 meanings of lag