Also 5, 7 flagg(e. [Cf. Icel. flag neut. the spot where a turf has been cut out, ON. flaga wk. fem. slab of stone (cogn. with FLAY v.); these appear in Eng. as FLAW sb.1, but some dialects have app. retained -ag- in adoption of ON. words. Cf. also FLAKE sb.2 FLAUGHT1.]
1. A piece cut out of or pared off the sward; a turf, sod. Also collect. Now dial. (E. Anglian).
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 16. Flagge of þe erthe … terricidium.
1633. P. Fletcher, Purple Isl., VIII. lvi. 120.
| Upon his shield an heap of fennie mire | |
| In flagges and turfs (with sunnes yet never drier) | |
| Did smoth’ring lie, not burn: his word, Smoke without fire. |
1691. Ray, S. & E. C. Words (E.D.S.), Flags, the surface of the earth, which they pare off to burn; the upper turf. Norf.
1847. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., VIII. II. 306. The flags are burnt in small heaps. Ibid., Ser. II. III. II. 659. Covered with grass flag, cut 3 inches thick.
b. The slice of earth turned over by the ploughshare; also, the ground thus made ready for sowing. dial. (E. Anglian) only.
1787. Marshall, E. Norf. Words (E.D.S.), Flag, the furrow turned.
1795. Annals Agric., XXIII. 27. To dibble beans, one row on each flag.
1800. Trans. Soc. Encourag. Arts, XVIII. 109. The plough … turned over a flag of nine inches.
1823. Moor, Suffolk Words, Flag … the portion of clover land turned at once by the plough.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Flag 2, The surface of a clover lay of the second year, turned up by the plough. The wheat for the next year’s crop is dibbled into the flag.
1845. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., V. II. 340. Nothing rose to cover the ground after the first mowing, so as to make a flag for the wheat.
2. A flat slab of any fine-grained rock which may be split into flagstones; a flagstone.
1604. Vestry Bks. (Surtees), 282. A cesse of iijd. the pound shalbe levied for the winninge of flaggs.
1658. in Picton, L’pool Munic. Rec. (1883), I. 188. That a new flagge be laid ov’ the watercourse.
1774. Pennant, Tour Scotl. in 1772, 297. An urn of elegant workmanship, found in a stone chest, formed of six flags.
1799. J. Robertson, Agric. Perth, 34. The brown flags … were at one period used so much in covering houses in many parts of Scotland.
1839. E. D. Clarke, Travels in Russia, 33/1. The new promenade forming on its banks, immediately beneath the fortress, is a superb work, and promises to rival the famous quay at Petersburg. It is paved with large flags.
1871. Tyndall, Fragm. Sc. (1879), I. xii. 308. With a hammer and chisel I can cleave them into flags; indeed these flags are employed for roofing purposes in the districts from which the specimens have come, and receive the name of slatestone.
b. pl. A flagged foot-pavement.
1802. Mar. Edgeworth, Moral T. (1816), I. xiii. 106. A thin, pale man fiddling to a set of dancing dogs, that he was exhibiting upon the flags, for the amusement of a crowd of men, women, and children.
1850. Clough, Dipsychus, II. iv. 3.
| What! shall I go about, | |
| And like the walking shoe-black roam the flags | |
| To see whose boots are dirtiest? |
3. Salt-mining. ‘A very hard kind of marl found near the first bed of rock salt’ (Holland, Chester Gloss., 1884).
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal Mining.
1892. Cornhill Mag., Sept., 263. A shaft is sunk till the ‘flag’ or ‘bean metal’ has been pierced.
4. Glass-making, (see quot.).
1883. Chance, in Powell, Principles Glass-making, 111. These grate-rooms are sunk several feet below the level of the bed of the furnace, and are separated from each other by a portion of the bed, which is called the flag.
5. attrib. and Comb., as flag-way; flag-like adj. Also ? flag-broom (see quots.; perh. belongs to FLAG sb.1); flag-harrow, a harrow for thoroughly breaking up the flag (sense 1 b); flag-sandstone, sandstone that may be split into flags (sense 2). And FLAG-STONE.
1697. Dampier, Voy., I. 150. The leaves that make the brush part of the *Flag-brooms which are brought into England, grow just in this manner; and are indeed a small kind of Palmeto.
1755. Johnson, Flag-broom, a broom for sweeping flags or pavements … commonly made of birch-twigs, or of the leaves of the dwarf palm.
1845. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., V. II. 333. The land … may be broken down by a *flag-harrow, called by some a crab-harrow.
1839. Murchison, Silur. Syst., I. xxxiv. 455. Occasioning these *flaglike strata to split into a number of dice-shaped and rhombic forms.
1843. Portlock, Geol., 505. A large portion of the micaceous *flag sandstones of the old red are highly calcareous.
1800. in Spirit Public Jrnls. (1801), IV. 263. The *flag-way is pleasant to saunter and idle.
1875. Le Fanu, Will. Die, xix. 116. He walked slowly up and down the silent flagway.
