▪ I. sagging, vbl. n.
(ˈsægɪŋ)
[f. sag v. + -ing1.]
The action of the verb sag in various senses.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 440/2 Saggynge, or satlynge, bassacio, bassatura. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1780), Sagging to leeward, the movement by which a ship makes a considerable lee-way, or is driven far to leeward of the course whereon she apparently sails. It is generally expressed of heavy-sailing vessels. 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XVII. 420/1 Practical observations on the hogging and sagging of ships. 1868 Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869) 252 The stakes also prevent the sagging of pleached or obliquely laid saplings. 1898 F. Davis Silchester 14 The sagging of some of the tesselated pavements. |
▪ II. sagging, ppl. a.
(ˈsægɪŋ)
[f. sag v. + -ing2.]
That sags (in various senses of the verb).
| 1599 Nashe Lenten Stuffe 37 A sagging paire of cheeks like a sows paps that giues suck. 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. 178 This goodly sagging Dugs, a Pap fashion. 1859 R. F. Burton Centr. Afr. in Jrnl. Geog. Soc. XXIX. 32 The Raz de marée, or rollers, that hurling sagging sea, so trying to small vessels upon the Mozambique coast..is here little feared. 1887 Scott. Leader 21 June 5 The tone on the Chicago market was dull and weak, with a ‘sagging’ tendency. 1897 Kipling Capt. Cour. 107 The long, sagging line may twitch a boat under in a flash. |