Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To sink, droop, or settle from pressure or weight.
  • intransitive verb To lose vigor, firmness, or resilience.
  • intransitive verb To decline, as in value or price.
  • intransitive verb Nautical To drift to leeward.
  • intransitive verb To wear one's pants with the waist below the hips, so that one's underwear is visible.
  • intransitive verb To cause to sag.
  • noun The act or an instance of sagging.
  • noun The degree or extent to which something sags.
  • noun A sagging or drooping part or area.
  • noun A sunken area of land; a depression.
  • noun A sagging area; a depression.
  • noun A decline, as in monetary value.
  • noun Nautical A drift to leeward.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A bending or drooping, as of a rope that is fastened at its extremities, or of a surface; droop.
  • Heavy; loaded; weighed down.
  • noun In railroad construction, a depression in the grade of a road; the meeting of a down grade with an up grade. An abrupt sag is objectionable, owing to the varying strains upon the cars of a train passing it, the cars on the up grade being pulled apart and those on the down grade being pressed together, the strains being reversed as each car passes the lowest point of the sag.
  • noun A depression in a crest-line or divide.
  • To droop, especially in the middle; settle or sink through weakness or lack of support.
  • Hence To yield under the pressure of care, difficulties, trouble, doubt, or the like; be depressed.
  • To go about in a careless, slovenly manner or state; slouch.
  • Nautical, to incline to the leeward; make lee-way.
  • To cause to droop or bend in the middle, as by an excessive load or burden: opposed to hog.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun State of sinking or bending; sagging.
  • intransitive verb To sink, in the middle, by its weight or under applied pressure, below a horizontal line or plane; ; hence, to lean, give way, or settle from a vertical position.
  • intransitive verb rare 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.
  • intransitive verb To loiter in walking; to idle along; to drag or droop heavily.
  • intransitive verb (Naut.) to make much leeway by reason of the wind, sea, or current; to drift to leeward; -- said of a vessel.
  • transitive verb To cause to bend or give way; to load.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The state of sinking or bending; sagging.
  • noun The difference in elevation of a wire, cable, chain or rope suspended between two consecutive points.
  • noun The difference height or depth between the vertex and the rim of a curved surface, specifically used for optical elements such as a mirror or lens.
  • 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 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 To loiter in walking; to idle along; to drag or droop heavily.
  • verb transitive To cause to bend or give way; to load.
  • verb informal To wear one's trousers so that their top is well below the waist.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb cause to sag
  • noun a shape that sags
  • verb droop, sink, or settle from or as if from pressure or loss of tautness

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English saggen, probably of Scandinavian origin; akin to Swedish sacka, to sink.]

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Examples

  • Incidentally, Lloyd, why do you call the sag-faced moron 'Gordon' when you refer to Dave as 'Cameron' and Clegg as 'Clegg'.

    Tony Blair: The Next Labour Prime Minister? 2010

  • Incidentally, Lloyd, why do you call the sag-faced moron 'Gordon' when you refer to Dave as 'Cameron' and Clegg as 'Clegg'.

    Tony Blair: The Next Labour Prime Minister? 2010

  • Its sag is evidence of a relaxed sensual appreciation of the good things in life, talk, sex music and food.

    Archive 2007-08-12 Newmania 2007

  • Its sag is evidence of a relaxed sensual appreciation of the good things in life, talk, sex music and food.

    More Rimbeau Less Rambo ? Newmania 2007

  • And there are times the Spurs seem to sag from the pressure.

    USATODAY.com - Pistons pound Spurs, tie series 2005

  • Even on the part of diligent players there will sometimes appear to be a tendency to sag from the high level of performance required.

    What Is This Business of Conducting? 1940

  • I've specially engineered this bra to completely eliminate movement during running therefore reducing pain and long term sag!

    AnimeBlogger.net Antenna 2009

  • Yeah … if this could be designed so that it didn’t ‘chip apart’ over time and the middle didn’t sag from the weight … this is great.

    ECO TV PACKAGING TURNS INTO DIY FURNITURE | Inhabitat 2007

  • I even have a middle that is thought out and will not sag, which is a first for me.

    I have a plot! shweta_narayan 2008

  • As to the shelves themselves, long shelves of softer woods will inevitably sag, which is unpleasant to look at.

    HOME COMFORTS CHERYL MENDELSON 2005

  • The amount of curve in your hammock, also known as sag, is determined by the distance between both ends of the hammock once it’s set up.

    How to Hang A Hammock Indoors Simon Letourneau 2022

Comments

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  • Gas in reverse.

    November 3, 2007