▪ I. flagging, vbl. n.1
(ˈflægɪŋ)
[f. flag v.1 + -ing1.]
The action of the vb. flag1.
| 1611 Cotgr., Alachissement..a flagging, or falling downe, through feeblenesse. 1668 Culpepper & Cole Barthol. Anat. ii. vi. 102 The swelling of the Heart and the Flagging thereof. 1855 H. Spencer Princ. Psychol. (1870) I. ii. v. 236 That flagging of the circulation which accompanies the decline of life. 1865 M. Arnold Ess. Crit. i. 36 He was inclined to regret, as a spiritual flagging, the lull which he saw. |
▪ II. ˈflagging, vbl. n.2
[f. flag v.3 + -ing1.]
1. The action of paving with flagstones.
| 1656 H. Webb in D. King Vale Royall ii. 209 The Flagging of the long West Ile..was this year begun by Dean Mitter. 1824 in Picton L'pool Munic. Rec. (1886) II. 341 The paving and flagging of streets. 1893 Birkenhead News 9 Dec. 1/2 Tenders for the Flagging, Channelling, and Sewering of various Passages in the Borough. |
2. concr. The material used in paving; hence, the pavement. (The two first quots. are doubtful.)
| 1622 Vestry Bks. (Surtees) 178 For making upp a wall and flagging about the bells floore for five dayes att x d. per diem, iiij s. ij d. 1660 Ibid. 197 For setting upp the fount and flagging about itt, 8 s. 6 d. 1825 Beverley Lighting Act ii. 27 The flagging and other materials thereof to be taken up. 1851 Longfellow Gold. Leg. ii. i. 50 He..heard angelic feet Fall on the golden flagging of the street. 1861 Holland Less. Life iii. 39 Stretched at her length upon the flagging. |
3. attrib., as flagging stone.
| 1830 N. S. Wheaton Jrnl. 366 A vault covered with a coarse flagging stone. 1868 B. J. Lossing Hudson 172 Almost inexhaustible quarries of flagging stone. |
▪ III. † ˈflagging, vbl. n.3 Obs.
[? f. flag n.4 + -ing1.]
? A long flowing hat-band.
| 1695 Lond. Gaz. No. 3045/4 His Coat whitish, with black Triming, a black Hat and Flaging. |
▪ IV. flagging, ppl. a.
(ˈflægɪŋ)
[f. flag v.1 + -ing2.]
That flags; hanging down, drooping; failing, languid.
| 1545 T. Raynalde Byrth Mankynde (1564) C j, That her brestes..be neyther to great, soft, hangyng, and flaggyng. c 1620 Z. Boyd Zion's Flowers (1855) 10 Against the yard The flagging mainsaile flapt. 1636 B. Jonson Discov. Wks. (Rtldg.) 759/1 The language is thin, flagging, poor, starved. 1715–20 Pope Iliad xxiii. 1039 The wounded bird..With flagging wings alighted on the mast. 1838 Wordsw. Sonnets x, Dull, flagging notes that with each other jar. 1874 L. Stephen Hours in Lib. (1892) I. v. 189 He..had recourse to..stimulants to rouse a flagging imagination. |
Hence ˈflaggingly adv.
| a 1693 Urquhart Rabelais iii. v. 54, I would come off but very faintly and flaggingly. |