Definition of lag

• a. - Coming tardily after or behind; slow; tardy.
• a. - Last; long-delayed; -- obsolete, except in the phrase lag end.
• a. - Last made; hence, made of refuse; inferior.
• n. - One who lags; that which comes in last.
• n. - The fag-end; the rump; hence, the lowest class.
• n. - The amount of retardation of anything, as of a valve in a steam engine, in opening or closing.
• n. - A stave of a cask, drum, etc.; especially (Mach.), one of the narrow boards or staves forming the covering of a cylindrical object, as a boiler, or the cylinder of a carding machine or a steam engine.
• n. - See Graylag.
• v. i. - To walk or more slowly; to stay or fall behind; to linger or loiter.
• v. t. - To cause to lag; to slacken.
• v. t. - To cover, as the cylinder of a steam engine, with lags. See Lag, n., 4.
• n. - One transported for a crime.
• v. t. - To transport for crime.