† 1. trans. To carry off, steal. Obs.
1573. Tusser, Husb., xx. (1878), 54. Some corne away lag in bottle and bag. Some steales, for a iest, egges out of the nest. Ibid., xxxvi. 86. Poore cunnie, so bagged, is soone ouer lagged.
2. a. To transport or send to penal servitude.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., Lag, to transport for seven years or upwards.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, xvi. They’ll ask no questions after him, fear they should be obliged to prosecute, and so get him lagged.
1870. Reade, Put Yourself in His Place, II. 288. Let Little alone, or the trade will make it their job to lag you.
b. To catch, apprehend.
1847. De Quincey, Schlosser’s Lit. Hist., Wks. 1858, VIII. 58. Aladdin himself only escaped being lagged for a rogue and a conjurer by a flying jump after his palace.
1858. A. Mayhew, Paved with Gold, III. ii. 252. They tell him adventures of how they were nearly ‘lagged by the constables.’
1891. Nat. Gould, Double Event, xxxiv. I’m a dead un. You’ll never lag me alive, you cur!
