sag
/sæɡ/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms sags sagging sagged seg segg sack
- noun The state of sinking or bending; a droop.
- noun A depression or dip in anything.
- noun A place where the surface of the earth, a mountain range, a ridge, etc., sinks or droops.
- noun The difference in elevation of a wire, cable, chain or rope suspended between two consecutive points.
- noun The difference in height or depth between the vertex and the rim of a curved surface, specifically used for optical elements such as a mirror or lens.
- noun A region or spot where the skin has lost some of its elasticity and droops or hangs down.
- noun A person with sagging skin.
- verb To sink, in the middle, by its weight or under applied pressure, below a horizontal line or plane. “A line or cable supported by its ends sags, even if it is tightly drawn.”
- verb (by extension) To lean, give way, or settle from a vertical position. “A building may sag one way or another.”
- verb (figuratively) To lose firmness, elasticity, vigor, or a thriving state; to sink; to droop; to flag; to bend; to yield, as the mind or spirits, under the pressure of care, trouble, doubt, or the like; to be unsettled or unbalanced.
- verb (intransitive, of a story, e.g., movie) To fail to sustain interest; to be boring. “The movie really sags after the chase scene.”
- verb To loiter in walking; to idle along; to drag or droop heavily.
- verb (transitive) To cause to bend or give way; to load.
- verb (transitive) To wear one's trousers, shorts, etc., so that their top is well below the waist. “He sags his pants real low.”
- verb (intransitive, of trousers, shorts, etc.) To be worn so that the top is well below the waist. “His pants were sagging low.”
- proper noun A village and commune of Sălaj County, Romania.
Synonyms
Etymology
From earlier sag, sagg, sack, from Middle English saggen, probably from Middle Low German sacken (“to sink, drift”), ultimately of North Germanic/Scandinavian/Old Norse origin, akin to Old Norse søkkva (“to sink”), a denasalized derivative of Proto-Germanic *sankwijaną (“to cause to sink”), related to Proto-Germanic *sinkwaną (“to sink”).
Cognate with Scots seg (“to sink”), Danish sakke (“to lag behind”), Swedish sacka (“to lag”), Icelandic sakka (“to sink”), Faroese søkka (“to sink, drop down, descend, set”), Dutch zakken (“to fall, drop, sink”), German Low German sacken (“to sink”), and German sacken (“to sink”) (from Low German).
Compare also Norwegian Nynorsk sagga (“to walk or move heavily and slowly”).
Unadapted borrowing from Romanian Sâg.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To sink, in the middle, by its weight or under applied pressure, below a horizontal line or plane; as, a line or cable supported by its ends sags, though tightly drawn; the floor of a room sags; hence, to lean, give way, or settle from a vertical position; as, a building may sag one way or another; a door sags on its hinges.
- verb Fig.: To lose firmness or elasticity; to sink; to droop; to flag; to bend; to yield, as the mind or spirits, under the pressure of care, trouble, doubt, or the like; to be unsettled or unbalanced.
- verb To cause to bend or give way; to load.
- noun State of sinking or bending; sagging.
Etymology [Akin to Sw. sacka to settle, sink down, LG.sacken, D. zakken. Cf. Sink, v. i.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “sag”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details