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Lag   /læg/   Listen
Lag

noun
1.
The act of slowing down or falling behind.  Synonyms: retardation, slowdown.
2.
The time between one event, process, or period and another.  Synonyms: interim, meantime, meanwhile.
3.
One of several thin slats of wood forming the sides of a barrel or bucket.  Synonym: stave.



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"Lag" Quotes from Famous Books



... delightful summer evenings; the awning that shaded her chamber window—I almost fancied I saw her form beneath it. Could she but know her lover was in the bark whose white sail now gleamed on the sunny bosom of the sea! My fond impatience increased as we neared the coast. The ship seemed to lag lazily over the billows; I could almost have sprung into the sea and swam ...
— Tales of a Traveller • Washington Irving

... people, so is its religion. It is vain, broadly speaking, to look for the combination of primitive manners and customs with a lofty spiritual faith. The converse it is true may often seem to take place. Religion, or rather religious creeds and practices, often seem to lag behind civilisation and to maintain themselves long after the reason and the conscience of a people has condemned them. That is because religion is what man values most in his life, and he is loath to change observances in which his affections ...
— History of Religion - A Sketch of Primitive Religious Beliefs and Practices, and of the Origin and Character of the Great Systems • Allan Menzies

... attention, it was diverted by a belligerent party at her front gate. This belligerent party was composed of two persons, to wit: one mother from the north end of Willow Creek, irate to the spluttering point, and one boy lagging as far behind the mother as his short arm would allow him to lag. The mother held the short arm, and was literally dragging her son to Miss Morgan's gate to offer him in evidence as "Exhibit A" in a possible cause of the State of Kansas vs. Henry Perkins. Exhibit A was black and blue as ...
— The Court of Boyville • William Allen White

... my arms full of prizes at Harrow, and my Trinity scholarship—and could just, in the plenitude of my presumption, extend a little conceited patronage to that unlucky dunce, Tom Underwood, the lag of every form, and thankful for a high stool at old Kedge's. And now my children view a cold fowl as an unprecedented monster, while his might, I imagine, revel in ...
— The Pillars of the House, V1 • Charlotte M. Yonge

... It is death to halt," said the guide, in a tone so resolute and callous that those who were enfeebled lost heart altogether, and began to lag behind. ...
— Digging for Gold - Adventures in California • R.M. Ballantyne

... it is said, travels fast. But in France good news travels faster, and it is the evil tidings that lag behind. It is part of a Frenchman's happy nature to believe that which he wishes to be true. And although the news travelled rapidly, that Gambetta—that spirit of an unquenchable hope—had escaped from Paris with full power to conduct the war from Tours, the notification ...
— The Isle of Unrest • Henry Seton Merriman

... hossches'nuts leetle hands unfold Softer'n a baby's be at three days old Thet's robin-redbreast's almanick; he knows Thet arter this ther' 's only blossom-snows So, choosin' out a handy crotch an' spouse, He goes to plast'rin' his adobe house. Then seems to come a hitch,—things lag behind, Till some fine mornin' Spring makes up her mind, An' ez, when snow-swelled avers cresh their dams Heaped-up with ice thet dovetails in an' jams, A leak comes spirtin thru some pin-hole cleft, Grows stronger, fercer, tears out right an' left, Then all the waters ...
— Selections From American Poetry • Various

... terrible intensity on the yellow sand of the railway cuttings! The Ohio man carried no baggage, but the Jew was heavily laden, and soon fell behind. For a time I kept pace with my light companion; but soon I too was obliged to lag, and about midday found myself alone in the solitudes of the Dalles. At last there came a gorge deeper and steeper than any thing that had preceded it, and I was forced to rest long before attempting ...
— The Great Lone Land - A Narrative of Travel and Adventure in the North-West of America • W. F. Butler

... was a deaf and dumb negro around Lyndhall," mused Deck. "Forward, boys, we mustn't lag!" he shouted to the ranks ...
— An Undivided Union • Oliver Optic

... heart of a forest tree, and welled out abundantly, till it covered the coarse bark with fragrant buds and shoots, and flowers of immortal scent and hue. For her body kept pace with the progress of her soul, as if out of rivalry and jealousy unwilling to lag behind it, in the acquisition of ornaments and graces. And having no other models, it found itself obliged to imitate the objects that made up the atmosphere and soil in which it grew: till at last the deer and the blue lotuses gazed upon her eyes, and the red ...
— Bubbles of the Foam • Unknown

... felicitous flow and inspired vigour which mark the Ode to the Passions and other of his lyrics—none of that happy personification of abstract conceptions which is the characteristic of his genius. The majority of the lines lag and move heavily, and do not seem to me to rise much above mediocrity in the expression. The subject was attractive, and might have afforded space for the wild excursions of Collins's creative powers. As to the edition of Bell, in which it is pretended that the lost ...
— The Poetical Works of William Collins - With a Memoir • William Collins

... dissatisfaction at seeing a debate re-opened which they had deemed concluded. Adimantus, the Corinthian admiral broke out into open rebukes and menaces. "Themistocles," he exclaimed, "those who rise at the public games before the signal are whipped." "True," replied Themistocles; "but they who lag behind it never win a crown." Another incident in this discussion has been immortalized by Plutarch. Eurybiades, incensed by the language of Themistocles, lifted up his stick to strike him, whereupon the Athenian exclaimed, "Strike, but hear ...
— A Smaller History of Greece • William Smith

... parlance, to be imaginative means to have the Imagination developed out of all proportion with the other powers. This is, perhaps, quite as bad as to have an insufficiency. What we should desire is a balance of powers. Imagination should not run away with Thought and Affection, but neither should it lag behind them. All must act harmoniously and equally in a symmetrically developed Character. They are like the three legs of a tripod; and if either is longer or shorter than the others, or worse still, if ...
— The Elements of Character • Mary G. Chandler

... things more comfortable in their hut and attending to the garden, which bloomed out apace each day, the hours did not lag on their hands by any means during the next week or two. There was occupation enough, even in this interval, to pass the time pleasantly away; but, when the month of November was ushered in, the seals then coming to ...
— Fritz and Eric - The Brother Crusoes • John Conroy Hutcheson

... Industry, the Farm Bureau, and the Department of Conservation, 79% of the area that has been mined to date has been successfully revegetated. The remaining 21% is a natural lag and represents lands newly mined or areas that have not weathered to the point where they will support revegetation. The demand for recreation lands and home sites where water is available is constantly increasing. At least 13% of the revegetated area ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 43rd Annual Meeting - Rockport, Indiana, August 25, 26 and 27, 1952 • Various

... reach the valley and there spend the night. He believed that he should find water among that heavy timber ahead of him, and thither he made his way. Neither was he mistaken, for when his steps at length began to lag he heard the ripple of water drifting up the trail. As he drew nearer he smelled the smoke of a camp-fire, and the appetizing odor of roasting meat. "Somebody must be camping there," he mused, "and I may have company. I am sorry, but then ...
— Glen of the High North • H. A. Cody

... to lag and around 1646 no more than 500 pounds sterling was being collected. The treasurer appealed to the Assembly which acknowledged that "There is and hath been great neglect in the payment of the quitt rent." ...
— Mother Earth - Land Grants in Virginia 1607-1699 • W. Stitt Robinson, Jr.

... such a little way as that? Anna, too, was averse to riding and she felt a kind of grim satisfaction when, after a time, the little figure, which at first had skipped along ahead with all the airiness of a bird, began to lag, and even pant for breath, as the way grew steeper and the path more stony and rough. Anna's evil spirit was in the ascendant that afternoon, steeling her heart against Lucy's doleful exclamations, as one after another her delicate slippers were torn, and the sharp thistles, of which ...
— The Rector of St. Mark's • Mary J. Holmes

... barge was soon filled and on its way. The horses were less fresh than those of the first barge, and seemed determined to lag. Indeed, they required constant urging to keep them from dropping into ...
— Dorothy Dainty at the Mountains • Amy Brooks

... Birmingham. Whereupon I began to calculate the trifling progress my reading companion could have made in his book during our rapid journey, and to devise plans for the gratification of persons similarly situated as my fellow-traveller. "Why," thought I, "should literature alone lag in the age of steam? Is there no way by which a man could be made to swallow Scott or bolt Bulwer, in as short a time as it now takes him to read an auction bill?" Suddenly a happy thought struck me: it was to write a novel, in which only the actual spirit of the narration should be retained, ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 1, July 17, 1841 • Various

... And his eyes were grey, He laughed a merry laugh And said a sweet say. Where is he gone to That he comes not home? 20 To-day or to-morrow He surely will come. Let him haste to joy Lest he lag for sorrow, For one weeps to-day Who'll not weep to-morrow: To-day she must weep For gnawing sorrow, To-night she may sleep And not wake ...
— Goblin Market, The Prince's Progress, and Other Poems • Christina Rossetti

... wind, or off, she must some day lag, as we seamen have it! Captain Ludlow, I excuse some harshness of construction, that your language might imply; for it becomes a commissioned servant of the crown, to use freedom with one who, like the lawless companion of the princely Hal, is but too apt to propose ...
— The Water-Witch or, The Skimmer of the Seas • James Fenimore Cooper

... offered a peculiar opportunity for noting the silent progress made during the long peace by the material of war among the navies of Europe, where the necessity of constant preparation insures an advance in which the United States then, as now, tended to lag behind. It supplied also a test, under certain conditions, of the much-vexed question of the power of ships against forts; for the French squadron, though few in numbers, deliberately undertook to batter by horizontal fire, as well as to bombard, in the more correct sense ...
— Admiral Farragut • A. T. Mahan

... suspense which caused the pulse to flutter and the breath to lag; the crowd gave tongue in a howl of hoarse delight. Then followed a peculiar shrilling chorus—that familiar signal known as the "dago whistle"—which was like the piercing cry of lost souls. "Who killa da Chief?" screamed the hoodlums, then puckered their lips and piped again that mocking signal. ...
— The Net • Rex Beach

... moment by the proper word, the proper voice, the proper touch. That is why I say, Go thy way, O my Brother. Be simple, natural, spontaneous, courageous, free. Neither anticipate your years, nor lag child-like behind them. For verily, it is as ridiculous to dye the hair white as to dye it black. Ah, be foolish while thou art young; it is never too late to be wise. Indulge thy fancy, follow the bent of thy mind; for in so doing thou canst not possibly do thyself more harm than the disciplinarians ...
— The Book of Khalid • Ameen Rihani

... fair Spring, is tripping o'er the Earth, With feet that ne'er can know the lag of age; The Earth, her lover, conscious of her worth, Flings down all his rich treasures to engage That blushing wanderer: but she journeys forth Heedless of all his offerings. The hot rage Of love shall scorch his heart in tortures fell, Till Winter ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 12, - Issue 322, July 12, 1828 • Various

... has had these boys from the time she started to teach. She certainly has her hands full with her Sunday School class, the Gleaners Missionary Band and the Young People's Society, for she is our president this term. There is no lag about her. She is always planning something beautiful for somebody. Everyone loves her. When Victor was in the hospital the time he was hurt by the runaway, Miss Edith took him flowers several times; and the nurse told us that she visits the children's ward ...
— The Lilac Lady • Ruth Alberta Brown

... whale. Six months after laying their keels, these little brigs were launched; and lucky it was that the governor had ordered copper for a ship to be brought out, since it now came handy for using on these two craft. But, the whaling business had not been suffered to lag while the Jonas and the Dragon were on the stocks; the Anne, and the Martha, and the single boats, being out near half the time. Five hundred barrels were taken in this way; and Betts, in particular, had made so much money, or, what was the same thing, had got so much oil, that he came one ...
— The Crater • James Fenimore Cooper

... may sometimes lag, but the singing and the rhythmical rasping of the shaman are kept up through the night, interrupted only once or twice, when he sees fit. He politely excuses himself to Hikuli, and formal salutations are exchanged with ...
— Unknown Mexico, Volume 1 (of 2) • Carl Lumholtz

... currents travelling towards a region of more rapid motion have a tendency to "lag behind," and so appear to travel in a direction opposite to that of the ...
— Ontario Normal School Manuals: Science of Education • Ontario Ministry of Education

... doctor: "If I had only some money about me, ye surely should have it, Little and big; for certainly many among you must need it. Yet I'll not go without giving thee something to show what my will is, Even though sadly behind my good-will must lag the performance." Thus, as he spoke, by its straps his embroidered pocket of leather, Where his tobacco was kept, he drew forth,-enough was now in it Several pipes to fill,—and daintily opened, and portioned. "Small ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke

... he will ride alongside to Angora. For nearly two miles that sanguine but unsuspecting minion of the Turkish Government spurs his noble steed alongside the bicycle in spite of my determined pedalling to shake him off; but the road improves; faster spins the whirling wheels; the zaptieh begins to lag behind a little, though still spurring his panting horse into keeping reasonably close behind; a bend now occurs in the road, and an intervening knoll hides iis from each other; I put on more steam, and at the same time ...
— Around the World on a Bicycle V1 • Thomas Stevens

... Lag as the girls might, they could not delay their progress much longer, and their bosoms were torn with conflicting emotions. What were they to do? Leave the truant Tray to his fate? Boldly halt before the next shop window, ...
— A Houseful of Girls • Sarah Tytler

... the reins back through her fingers till they stretched tight. A dozen times she had sought in vain to make him think she did not wish him to gallop, but something in the crisp air this morning threw him off his guard. Why should he be forced to lag behind? He stretched the arch of his neck straight till the bit held hard in his mouth; the ears pitched forward in eager point; the great frame under the girl quivered and sank closer to earth; the roar of his beating hoofs came up to her ears, muffled by the drive ...
— Thoroughbreds • W. A. Fraser

... carpenter called attention to the rudder. On inspection Scott saw that the solid oak rudder-head was completely shattered, and was held together by little more than its weight; as the tiller was moved right or left the rudder followed it, but with a lag of many degrees, so that the connection between the two was evidently insecure. In such a condition it was obvious that they could not hope to weather a gale without losing all control over the ship, and that no time was to be lost in ...
— The Voyages of Captain Scott - Retold from 'The Voyage of the "Discovery"' and 'Scott's - Last Expedition' • Charles Turley

... more burnings. Back on Earth there were careful measurements. A tight beam tends to attenuate when it is thrown a hundred thousand miles. It tends to! When speech is conducted over it, the lag between comment and reply is perceptible. It's not great—just over half a second. But one notices it. That lag was used to measure the speed and distance of the two craft. The ...
— Space Tug • Murray Leinster

... Without compromising any steps in the editorial process, the technology has reduced the time lag between when a manuscript is originally submitted and the time it is accepted; the review process does not differ greatly from the standard six-to-eight weeks employed by many of the hard-copy journals. The process ...
— LOC WORKSHOP ON ELECTRONIC TEXTS • James Daly

... to help, not to hinder. When a child like Trix has already found work, we ought not to lag behind. It would be impossible to go on living in the lap of luxury, wearing fine clothes, eating fine meals, being waited upon hand and foot, while our own people ...
— The Fortunes of the Farrells • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

... page runs on without hindrance from tragedy to comedy, comedy to farce, farce to melodrama, and thence to tragedy again—always it returns to tragedy. They stride round the Circle of the Emotions without halting, merging from joy into sorrow without preface, till one day the feet grow wearier and lag, the eyes grow clear and, almost without knowing it, as did Strangeways, their dream going from them, they awake—motionlessly pass out of life, and enter ...
— Murder Point - A Tale of Keewatin • Coningsby Dawson

... same effect as a debate on the Army. It is well known that the party of all the Colonels is enough to make any House empty; and a debate on agriculture is not much better. The farmer's friends are always a dreadfully dull lot; and they usually lag some half-century behind the political knowledge of the rest of the world. It would have been impossible for anybody but the county members to attempt a serious discussion on Protection or Bimetallism as cures for all the evils of the flesh; but that is what the agricultural members succeeded ...
— Sketches In The House (1893) • T. P. O'Connor

... believe that such schemes, however benevolent their design, rest on a complete misconception of what is for the interest both of the Colony and of the emigrants. It is almost invariably found that emigrants who thus isolate themselves, whatever their origin or antecedents, lag behind their neighbours; and I am inclined to think that, as a general rule, in the case of communities whose social and political organisation is as far advanced as that of the North American Colonies, it is for the interest ...
— Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl of Elgin • James, Eighth Earl of Elgin

... hurry homeward across the stretch of bright water. She let the old dory lag along almost at its own sweet will. For Judith dreaded to go home with her news of the poor little "haul" of lobsters. She knew so well how mother would sigh and how little Blossom would try to smile. Blossom always tried to smile when the news ...
— Judith Lynn - A Story of the Sea • Annie Hamilton Donnell

... in her desk, and the message, already written, and even stamped, was in the pocket of her coat. There was nothing for it but to act boldly, and accordingly, when they entered a street in which there was a post office, she let Queenie lag until they were a little distance behind the others. Then, as they reached the post ...
— Back To Billabong • Mary Grant Bruce

... it looked down superciliously upon the little squiredom of Craig Ronald, as well as upon farms and cottages a many. In days not so long gone by, Greatorix Castle had been the hold of the wearers of the White Cockade, rough riders after Lag and Sir James Dalzyell, and rebels after that, who had held with Derwentwater and the prince. Now there was quiet there. Only the Lady Elizabeth and her son Agnew Greatorix dwelt there, and the farmer's cow and the cottager's pig grazed and rooted unharmed—not always, however, ...
— The Lilac Sunbonnet • S.R. Crockett

... commencing to come in our direction; star shells were shooting up at short intervals, the gleam of a flare every now and then plainly revealing ourselves to each other. As we sat there the conversation seemed to lag and a silence that struck me as somewhat ominous pervaded our little group. I wondered if the rest were thinking of our number. One of my best chums, Corporal Lawrence, was sitting next me, and I thought ...
— S.O.S. Stand to! • Reginald Grant

... reading beyond two decimal places. But the first breakout was just far enough from the Wealdian system for Calhoun to be able to pick out its planets with the electron telescope at maximum magnification. He could aim for Weald itself, allowing, of course, for the lag in the apparent motion of its image because of the limited speed of light. He tried the briefest of overdrive hops, and came out within the solar system and ...
— This World Is Taboo • Murray Leinster

... he scanned the ground in front, but nothing was seen of the thief or his horses; but the hoof prints were fresh and the scout knew he was closer to him than at any time since the chase began. The flanks of his steed shone with perspiration and froth, but it would not do to lag now. The lips were compressed and the gray eye flashed ...
— The Life of Kit Carson • Edward S. Ellis

... disheartened; his spirit was spent; he would be glad of the lift. He reflected, however, that he must needs wait some time, for this was the date of a revival-meeting at the little church, and the distillers' wagon would lag, that its belated night journey might not be subjected to the scrutiny and comment of the church-goers. Indeed, even now Walter Wyatt saw in the distance the glimmer of a lantern, intimating homeward-bound worshipers ...
— His Unquiet Ghost - 1911 • Charles Egbert Craddock (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree)

... change is a hankering after another world, so the old world suspects it. Genius disturbs order, it unsettles mores and hence it is immoral. On a small scale it is intolerable, but genius will have no small scales; it is even more immoral for a man to be too far in front than to lag too far behind. The only absolute morality is absolute stagnation, but this is unpractical, so a peck of change is permitted to every one, but it must be a peck only, whereas genius would have ever ...
— The Note-Books of Samuel Butler • Samuel Butler

... irresistibly attractive to taste of birds as the colour is to the sight of man. Although the tree bursts into bloom with truly tropical ardour, they await the coming banquet with unaffected impatience. Then one of the prettiest frolics of the sun-bird is revealed. Time cannot lag with such gay, saucy creatures, so while they wait half a dozen or more congregate in a circle and with uplifted heads directed towards a common centre sing their song in unison. Whether the theme of the song is of protest against the tardiness of the tree, or of thanks in anticipation, or of ...
— The Confessions of a Beachcomber • E J Banfield

... random activity that goes with euphoria. The child derives satisfaction not so much from the muscular activity of vocalization as from the sounds that he produces, so that deaf children, who begin to babble much like other children, lag behind them as the months go by, from not deriving this auditory satisfaction from the vocal activity. Though whistling, blowing a horn, shaking a rattle and beating a drum are not native responses, it is clear that the child naturally enjoys ...
— Psychology - A Study Of Mental Life • Robert S. Woodworth

... "that's rather good! No, Eric, it's too late for you to turn 'grinder' now. I might as well think of doing it myself and I've never been higher than five from lag in ...
— Eric, or Little by Little • Frederic W. Farrar

... Once, when the season wooed me so, Lion Llewellyn, thou lovedst to go, Pacing before or close beside, Reticent, quaint, and dignified, Roaming with me, wandering wide; And if ever thy feet inclined, Weary with roving, to lag behind, When were my arms to aid thee slow? "Muver ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 25, November, 1859 • Various

... years of gloom and sorrow, of that deep anguish which at the time the sufferer believes to be indelible and everlasting, lag on their weary, desolate course, and when they too are over-passed, and he looks back upon their transit, which seemed so painfully protracted, and, lo! all is changed, and their flight also is now ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXIII No. 2 August 1848 • Various

... many practical things occupying his time to waste any on fancies. Bart had put in a very busy week, and a very satisfactory one. He had started in with a system, and had never allowed it to lag. In fact, ...
— Bart Stirling's Road to Success - Or; The Young Express Agent • Allen Chapman

... art the leader of the flock? Thou art not wont thus to lag behind. Thou hast always been the first to run to the pastures and streams in the morning, and the first to come back to the fold when evening fell; and now thou art last of all. Perhaps thou art troubled about thy master's eye, which ...
— Myths That Every Child Should Know - A Selection Of The Classic Myths Of All Times For Young People • Various

... result of hitching in this manner is, that the mule is continually trying to keep out of the way of the swingle-tree, and, finding that he cannot succeed, he becomes discouraged. And as soon as he does this he will lag behind; and as he gets sore from this continual banging, he will spread his hind legs and try to avoid the blows; and, in doing this, he forgets his business and becomes irritable. This excites the ...
— The Mule - A Treatise On The Breeding, Training, - And Uses To Which He May Be Put • Harvey Riley

... to Earlstoun, and lived there quietly far into the next century, taking his share in local and county business with Grierson of Lag and others who had hunted him for years—which is a strange thing to think on, but one also very characteristic ...
— The Red True Story Book • Various

... A noble convent! I have known it long By the report of travellers. I now see Their commendations lag behind the truth. You lie here in the valley of the Nagold As in a nest: and the still river, gliding Along its bed, is like an admonition How all things pass. Your lands are rich and ample, And your revenues large. God's ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

... different. The evolutions of nature are slow and beneficent, and it seems to be a period especially disposed so that the husbandman should reap in security the fruits of the year's labor. The days lag lazily; the atmosphere is serene, and the cerulean, without a cloud, is deeply blue. The foliage of the forest-trees, so gorgeous and abundant, gradually loses the intense green of summer, fading and yellowing so slowly as scarcely to be perceptible, and by such attenuated ...
— The Memories of Fifty Years • William H. Sparks

... it: and therefore am not apt to say much of that kind. The sentence that I pass upon myself is more severe than that of a judge, who only considers the common obligation; but my conscience looks upon it with a more severe and penetrating eye. I lag in those duties to which I should be compelled if I ...
— The Essays of Montaigne, Complete • Michel de Montaigne

... forgotten the night of the taumualua, nor how Mataafa had relinquished, at his request, the attack upon the German quarter. Blacklock, with his driver of a captain at his elbow, was not likely to lag behind. And Mataafa having communicated Knappe's letter, the example of the Germans was on all hands exactly followed; the consuls hastened on board their respective war-ships, and these began to get up steam. About midnight, in a pouring rain, Pelly communicated to Fritze his intention ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 17 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... affairs, especially in such an era of civilization as our own.' There can be no doubt of it. In these modern days, we are encumbered and weighed down with the appliances, physical and moral, which have come to be regarded as essential to the carry lag forward of our life. We forget how many thousands of separate items and articles were counted up, as having been used, some time within the last few years, by a dinner-party of eighteen persons, at a single entertainment. What incalculable worry in the procuring, the keeping ...
— The Recreations of A Country Parson • A. K. H. Boyd

... away then; and, Silvio, do you lag behind, 'twill give him an opportunity of enquiring, whilst I get out of sight.—Be sure you conceal my Name and Quality, and tell him—any thing but truth—tell him I am La Silvianetta, the young Roman Curtezan, or what you please to hide me from ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn, Vol. II • Aphra Behn

... Piazza, d' Espagna. I am trudging joyously beside him, hanging on to his left hand (the other being occupied with his hook-headed cane), asking him innumerable questions, to which he comfortably, or abstractedly, or with humorous impatience, replies; or I run on before him, or lag behind, busy with my endless occupation of picking up things to me curious and valuable, and filling with them my much-enduring pockets; in this way drinking in Rome in my own way, also, and to my boyish advantage. He tells me tales of old Rome, always ...
— Hawthorne and His Circle • Julian Hawthorne

... body of the people,'[104] or dreamt of asserting that the supremacy of the King was a fiction, meaning only the supremacy of the three estates.[105] So it long continued, especially in the Church. Ecclesiastical is ever wont to lag somewhat in the rear of political improvement. In the State, the personal supremacy of the sovereign, though a very strong reality in the hands of the Tudors, had been tutored into a moderately close conformity with the wishes of the popular representatives. In ...
— The English Church in the Eighteenth Century • Charles J. Abbey and John H. Overton

... thro the mountains, With the clouds for my companions, Soft clouds that float and cling From crag to cloven crag. I'm passing by the chalets That o'erhang the high canyons, Passing where the shepherds And the flocks they pipe to lag. ...
— Many Gods • Cale Young Rice

... of de Vries appears accordingly to lag useless on the biological stage, and may apparently be now relegated to the limbo of discarded hypotheses.... The present refutation has been undertaken in the interest of biological progress in this country. It is now high time, so far as the ...
— Q. E. D., or New Light on the Doctrine of Creation • George McCready Price

... to be allowed on the Sabbath day. No party to fork off, lag behind, or go before, without permission. No hunter or party to run buffalo before the general order, and every captain in turn to mount guard with his men and patrol the camp. The punishments for offenders were, like themselves, rather wild and wasteful. For a ...
— The Red Man's Revenge - A Tale of The Red River Flood • R.M. Ballantyne

... will have to shine in the midst of darkness for a long time. The urban populations, driven into contact with science by trade and manufacture, will more and more receive it, while the pagani will lag behind. Let us hope that no Julian may arise among them to head a forlorn hope against the inevitable. Whatever happens, science may bide her time ...
— Collected Essays, Volume V - Science and Christian Tradition: Essays • T. H. Huxley

... voiceful streams of his life would unite in one strong flow onward to a region of orient glory which shone before him as the bourne hitherto but dimly imagined. On, Oberon, on! No speed that would not lag behind the fore-flight of a heart's desire. Let the stretch of green-shadowing woodland sweep by like a dream; let the fair, sweet meadow-sides smile for a moment and vanish; let the dark hill-summits rise and sink. It is the time of youth and hope, of boundless faith ...
— A Life's Morning • George Gissing

... of leaves that lag My forest-brook along; When the ivy-tod[53-41] is heavy with snow, And the owlet whoops to the wolf below, ...
— Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 7 • Charles H. Sylvester

... lag, Im Tod war ich verloren, Mein' Suend' mich quaelet Nacht und Tag, Darin war ich geboren, Ich fiel auch immer tiefer d'rein, Es war kein gut's am Leben mein, ...
— The Hymns of Martin Luther • Martin Luther

... "You lag behind, friend, and are late," said Lord George. "It's past ten now. Didn't you know the hour of assemblage ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol III • Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton, Eds.

... happy Lutra made her daytime abode in a "holt" among the alder-roots fringing this pool. She loved in the long winter nights to hear the winnow-winnow of powerful wings as the wild ducks circled down towards the pool, the whir of the grey lag-geese far in the mysterious sky, and the whistle of the teal and the gurgle of the moorhens among the weeds close ...
— Creatures of the Night - A Book of Wild Life in Western Britain • Alfred W. Rees

... and from loyal Fathers sprung, } Shone bright among this sober Princely throng. } Enan, a Prince of very worthie Fame; Great in deserved Title, Bloud, and Name. Elizur too, who number'd with the best In Vertue, scorn'd to lag behind the rest. Abidon and Gamaliel had some sway; Both loyal, and both zealous in their way. And now once more I will invoke my Muse, To sing brave Ashur's praise who can refuse? Sprung from an ancient and a noble Race, With Courage stampt upon his manly face; Young, active, loyal; ...
— Anti-Achitophel (1682) - Three Verse Replies to Absalom and Achitophel by John Dryden • Elkanah Settle et al.

... whose livery is sombre," replied the young man, with a ghastly smile. "But enough of this," he added, endeavouring to assume a livelier air; "I suppose you are on the way to Hoghton Tower. I thought to reach Preston before you were up, but I might have recollected you are no lag-a-bed, Nicholas, not even after hard drinking overnight, as witness your feats at Whalley. To be frank with you, I feared being led into like excesses, and so preferred passing the night at the quiet little inn at Walton-le-Dale, to coming on to you at ...
— The Lancashire Witches - A Romance of Pendle Forest • William Harrison Ainsworth

... mind that," said Thorbiorn; so they all went on together; and as he went Olaf caught up a crooked cudgel with which to herd his sheep; he noticed, too, that Thorbiorn and Vakr kept trying to lag behind him, and he took care ...
— Hero-Myths & Legends of the British Race • Maud Isabel Ebbutt

... a hoarse voice overhead saying, 'Come along! come along!' and, looking up, saw a monstrous black creature sailing above the tops of the trees. It was only a crow on his way to the swamp, and he was trying to hurry up his mate, that always would lag behind in that corn-field where there wasn't so much as a grain left; but Tufty, which by this time you must have discovered was a very ignorant bird, thought the black monster was calling him, and piped back feebly: 'I can't! I can't!' ...
— Miss Elliot's Girls • Mrs Mary Spring Corning

... supernatural Glared in his figure, more than mortal tall; While all agreed that in his cheek and eye There was a dead hue of Eternity. 90 Still as their oars receded from the crag, Round every weed a moment would they lag, Expectant of some token of their prey; But no—he had melted ...
— The Works of Lord Byron - Poetry, Volume V. • Lord Byron

... instrument in business competition. In foreign affairs we cannot afford to put our people at a disadvantage with their competitors by in any way discriminating against the efficiency of our business organizations. In the same way we cannot afford to allow our insular possessions to lag behind in industrial development from any twisted jealousy of business success. It is, of course, a mere truism to say that the business interests of the islands will only be developed if it becomes the financial interest of somebody to develop them. Yet this ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various

... groups of intelligent machines standing up in their places and moulding with their steel fingers the rivets and the bolts; the railroad spikes, washers and fish-joints; the nuts, whether hot-pressed or cold-pressed; the lag-screws and the bolt-ends. Bars of all sizes and for an endless number of uses are pressed out like dough, and stored for sale in enormous warehouses. Mr. Mendinhall and Mr. Clement B. Smyth, the president and vice-president of this ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science - April, 1873, Vol. XI, No. 25. • Various

... Weiners left to-day too, because people are really beginning to stare at their mother too much. When Olga said goodbye to me she told me she hated having to travel with her mother and whenever possible she would lag behind a little so that people should not know ...
— A Young Girl's Diary • An Anonymous Young Girl

... across country, striking the great arterial caravan route at Unyanyembe, and getting at once into a channel that would ensure the intelligence reaching Zanzibar. On the other hand, false reports never lag on their journey:—how often has Livingstone been killed in former years! Nor is one's perplexity lessened by past experience, for we find the oldest and most sagacious travellers when consulted are, as a rule, no more to be depended ...
— The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume II (of 2), 1869-1873 • David Livingstone

... picture of the convict days. The original of Maurice Frere is known to have been the late Colonel ——, who was killed by the convicts in the prison hulk "Success," at Williamstown, in 1853. To this day there is no old lag that was ever exposed to his cruelty but reviles his memory. I once knew the convict who gave the signal for his murder. He was sentenced to death, but was reprieved and served a long term of imprisonment. The murder happened forty-one years ago, yet ...
— An Australian in China - Being the Narrative of a Quiet Journey Across China to Burma • George Ernest Morrison

... lag. They dared not wait for him. There was, they felt, not a moment to be lost. McRae's clean-shaven upper lip was a straight, grim surface. He voiced no fears, no doubts, but the others knew from their own anxiety how much ...
— Man Size • William MacLeod Raine

... up in a draw and partook of a hearty supper. The cattle began to lag as they were urged forward, and Chance was called into requisition to keep after the stragglers. As the herd was not large,—in fact, numbered but five hundred,—it was possible to keep it moving steadily and well bunched, throughout ...
— Sundown Slim • Henry Hubert Knibbs

... in the same battle of ideas, fought us with a merely inferior variety of our own weapons. But the greatest of our work is over, and the day of the politician has dawned. Unfortunately, the party of this damned lag-bellied Virginian has the monopoly. Burr is the natural result and the proudest sample of the French Revolution and its spawn. But your personal influence is tremendous. Who can say how many infuscated ...
— The Conqueror • Gertrude Franklin Atherton

... Buda-Pesth with the view of mastering the languages he deemed necessary. Up to this time he had never realized the enormous sacrifices that his parents had made in promoting his education, but he now began to feel the pinch and to grow unfamiliar with the image of Francis Joseph I. There was considerable lag between his dispatches and the corresponding remittance from home; and when the mathematical expression for the value of the lag assumed the shape of an eight laid flat on its back, Mr. Tesla became a very fair example of high thinking and plain living, but he made up his mind to the ...
— Experiments with Alternate Currents of High Potential and High - Frequency • Nikola Tesla

... made action lag behind conviction with Chesterton was his perpetual state of overwork. Physically inactive, his mind was never barren but issued in an immense output: several books every year besides editing and articles: there were even two years in which no fewer than ...
— Gilbert Keith Chesterton • Maisie Ward

... further action to be taken in the case of this disease. It might be well that your office should be represented at this conference in order that the united action of the states may be brought about and that our state may not continue to lag behind in a matter so seriously affecting so many of ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Second Annual Meeting - Ithaca, New York, December 14 and 15, 1911 • Northern Nut Growers Association

... should touch the imagination as well as the senses; and with such refinement of enjoyment the gallants of Pianura were unacquainted. Odo indeed perceived with a touch of amusement that, in a society where Don Serafino set the pace, he must needs lag behind his own lacquey. Cantapresto had, in fact, been hailed by the Bishop's nephew with a cordiality that proclaimed them old associates in folly; and the soprano's manner seemed to declare that, if ever ...
— The Valley of Decision • Edith Wharton

... er hinein und fuehrte den ersten Stoss, 45 Davon ein englischer Ritter zur Erde schoss; Dann schwang er das Schwert und fuehrte den ersten Schlag, Davon ein englischer Ritter am Boden lag. ...
— A Book Of German Lyrics • Various

... rapidly, and she began to lag behind. She was soon pushed aside hard against a fence, and the close-packed crowd went streaming past her. She saw that there were many ...
— Mother • Maxim Gorky

... together to shorten hours and raise wages we can put people back to work. No employer will suffer, because the relative level of competitive cost will advance by the same amount for all. But if any considerable group should lag or shirk, this great opportunity will pass us by and we will go into another desperate ...
— The Fireside Chats of Franklin Delano Roosevelt • Franklin Delano Roosevelt

... beliefs. Foreseeing, yet deprecating, the coming time of trouble, we still hoped, that, with some repairs and make-shifts, the old views might last out our days. Apres nous le deluge. Still, not to lag behind the rest of the world, we read the book in which the new theory is promulgated. We took it up, like our neighbors, and, as was natural, in a somewhat captious ...
— Atlantic Monthly Vol. 6, No. 33, July, 1860 • Various

... jockey. "A rum idea! however, lest conversation should lag, I'll give it you. First of all, however, a ...
— The Romany Rye • George Borrow

... powerful form, as the moon brightened up the spot in seeming pity, he felt he could never forget. His thoughts were interrupted by the harsh voice of Crow bidding him get up. He was told that the slightest inclination on his part to lag behind on the march before them, or in any way to make their trail plainer, would be the signal for his death. With that Crow cut the thongs which bound Isaac's legs and placing him between two of the Indians, led the way into ...
— Betty Zane • Zane Grey

... center of a whirlpool. If you are caught out in it, the Spirit of the Storm flies at you and loads your eyebrows and eyelashes and hair and beard with icicles and snow. As you look out into the white, the light through your bloodshot eyelids turns everything to crimson. Your feet lag, as the feathery whiteness comes almost to your knees. Your breath comes choked as with water. If you are out far away from shelter, God help you! You struggle along for a time, all the while fearing to believe that the ...
— Vandemark's Folly • Herbert Quick

... difficulty is chiefly due to the existence of three or four closely allied wild European species[456]. A large majority of capable judges are convinced that our geese are descended from the wild Grey-lag goose (A. ferus); the young of which can easily be tamed,[457] and are domesticated by the Laplanders. This species, when crossed with the domestic goose, produced in the Zoological Gardens, as I was assured in {288} 1849, perfectly fertile offspring.[458] ...
— The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, Vol. I. • Charles Darwin

... h-aobhach suilbhear an d['a]il gach tuiteamais a thig 'n a chrannchur. Ach 's e a's n['o]s do 'n droch shaighdear a bhi gearan 's a' talach air gach l['a]imh; beadaidh ri l['i]nn socair, is diombach ann eiric caoimhneis; lag-chridheach ri h-am cruachais, agus d['i]blidh ...
— Elements of Gaelic Grammar • Alexander Stewart

... but you can't understand these things, Polly dear—women haven't much head for business, you know. You make yourself perfectly comfortable, old lady, and you'll see how we'll trot this right along. Why bless you, let the appropriation lag, if it wants to—that's no great matter—there's ...
— The Gilded Age, Complete • Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner

... and they would be confused for a moment, before they identified his shape, for to their orientation if they used Earth-thought for it, he would seem to be leaning head downward on an almost vertical slope. He took advantage of the lag to move his gun under its curtain of leaves and get ...
— The Man Who Staked the Stars • Charles Dye

... transmission of a cablegram is shortened. But how much more important it is to gain a few years in learning what the men who are in advance of their age are doing than to gain a few seconds in learning what the people of Europe are doing? This lag in intellectual progress ... is something which it is the especial duty of the journalist to remove. He likes to score a beat of a few hours. Very well, if he will turn his attention to science, he can often score a beat ...
— How To Write Special Feature Articles • Willard Grosvenor Bleyer

... in December. Lord Palmerston may be said to have given them their chance, and Mr. Gladstone gave them their coup de grace. The Derby Administration was summoned into existence because Lord Palmerston carried his amendment on the Militia Bill, and it refused to lag superfluous on the stage after the crushing defeat which followed Mr. Gladstone's brilliant attack on the Budget of Mr. Disraeli. The chief legislative achievement of this short-lived Government was an extension ...
— Lord John Russell • Stuart J. Reid

... not a bitter revenge for all that I have suffered at their hands. But, prithee, turn your ship's head yet more to the southward to catch the current of Loch Andail, and so gain a few minutes' time. St. Olaf, how my heart beats at sight of those hills! Ah, how the moments lag! ...
— The Thirsty Sword • Robert Leighton

... than it should have been, and the elder woman continued to lag behind, voicing her distress in groans and lamentations. The priest, who was made of sterner stuff, did his best to bear his ...
— Heart of the Sunset • Rex Beach

... with Paul, were in the regular auto, had shown or "registered" all sorts of emotions during the chase. Sometimes the pursuing auto would be almost up to the one in front, and again it would lag far behind, in order to conform to the requirements of the script, or the story of the ...
— The Moving Picture Girls at Rocky Ranch - Or, Great Days Among the Cowboys • Laura Lee Hope



Words linked to "Lag" :   confine, cover, spline, law, time interval, pitch, toss, slat, jurisprudence, interval, incarcerate, drag, sky, laggard, drop behind, barrel, interregnum, detain, get behind, hang back, flip, trail, drop back, holdup, delay, slowdown, cask, follow



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