flagging

1. 1
   adjective

   Growing tired or less dynamic; declining in strength, energy, or momentum.

   The coach noticed the team's flagging energy and called a timeout.

   A second cup of coffee revived her flagging concentration during the long shift.

   Similarwaning, sagging, dwindling

   Oppositeincreasing

   Note

   This adjective sits before a noun and fits abstract things as easily as tired bodies: energy, interest, morale, even trade. Trains Illustrated in 1960 credits new railcars with retrieving "a flagging passenger traffic" on the Irish network. Its natural verbs are those of rescue, such as revive, retrieve and boost. The matching noun, for the process itself, is the gradual tiring.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of flag.

   He kept flagging passing taxis until one finally pulled over.

   Volunteers are flagging posts that violate the forum's rules.

   Note

   The -ing form does double duty, as a progressive verb (she was flagging a cab) and as a gerund (flagging errors takes time). It often takes a particle, and the two common ones point in different directions: flagging down means stopping a vehicle or person by signal, while flagging up means marking something for attention. You flag down a taxi but flag up a problem. The same spelling also names the adjective for waning energy, which is about tiring, not signaling.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   A paved surface or walkway made of flagstones; flagstones taken collectively.

   The terrace's stone flagging had cracked after years of hard frost.

   They replaced the broken flagging outside the cathedral entrance.

   Similarpaving, flagstones, pavement

4. 4
   noununcountable

   The gradual process by which something grows tired, weak, or less vigorous.

   The flagging of public interest forced the festival to close a day early.

   Coaches watch for any flagging in concentration during the closing minutes of a match.

   Similardecline, waning, weakening, slackening, fading

   Oppositerevival, resurgence, renewal

   Note

   The noun can be counted as well as massed, and the plural has a literary pedigree. Joseph Addison and Richard Steele in 1712 set "those flaggings of spirit" beside "damps of sorrow", treating each lapse as a separate episode. In modern prose the singular with of is more usual: a flagging of interest, of resolve. The plural still serves when the waning comes and goes in spells.

5. 5
   noununcountable

   In television, a distortion caused by faulty synchronization of the video signal, in which the top of the picture bends or leans sideways.

   Engineers traced the flagging to a worn playback head in the old VCR.

   Time-base correctors were developed largely to eliminate flagging during tape playback.

   Similarskew

   Note

   Video-repair technicians use this term for a distortion at the top of the frame, where the picture leans like a flag. Brenner and Capelo's VCR Troubleshooting and Repair (1998) pairs it with "bending" and traces it to horizontal time-base errors from a VCR that older televisions cannot follow quickly enough. The same deck may look fine on a newer set, which is why the fault is so often blamed on the wrong machine.

6. 6
   noununcountable

   The use of a handkerchief code or similar visible display to signal one's sexual interests.

   Within the leather scene, flagging communicated specific tastes through the color and pocket of a bandana.

   He relied on flagging to meet like-minded partners at bars where open conversation was risky.

   Note

   Here the verb's signaling sense, to convey a message by display, becomes a social code. Instead of a flag, a handkerchief or similar visible marker carries the message, and what it announces is a person's sexual interests. The noun names the practice as a whole, so people speak of flagging as a custom of a scene, not only as one person's act.

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