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Lag vs Lap - What's the difference?

lag | lap |

In transitive terms the difference between lag and lap

is that lag is to cause to lag; to slacken while lap is to overtake a straggler in a race by completing one more whole lap than the straggler.

As nouns the difference between lag and lap

is that lag is a gap, a delay; an interval created by something not keeping up; a latency while lap is the loose part of a coat; the lower part of a garment that plays loosely; a skirt; an apron.

As verbs the difference between lag and lap

is that lag is to fail to keep up (the pace), to fall behind while lap is to enfold; to hold as in one's lap; to cherish.

As an adjective lag

is late.

lag

English

Adjective

  • late
  • * 1592 , William Shakespeare, King Richard III
  • Some tardy cripple bore the countermand, / That came too lag to see him buried.
  • (obsolete) Last; long-delayed.
  • * Shakespeare
  • the lag end of my life
  • Last made; hence, made of refuse; inferior.
  • * Dryden
  • lag souls

    Noun

  • (countable) A gap, a delay; an interval created by something not keeping up; a latency.
  • * 2004 , May 10. The New Yorker Online,
  • During the Second World War, for instance, the Washington Senators had a starting rotation that included four knuckleball pitchers. But, still, I think that some of that was just a generational lag .
  • (uncountable) Delay; latency.
  • * 1999 , Loyd Case, Building the ultimate game PC
  • Whatever the symptom, lag is a drag. But what causes it? One cause is delays in getting the data from your PC to the game server.
  • * 2001 , Patricia M. Wallace, The psychology of the Internet
  • When the lag is low, 2 or 3 seconds perhaps, Internet chatters seem reasonably content.
  • * 2002 , Marty Cortinas, Clifford Colby, The Macintosh bible
  • Latency, or lag , is an unavoidable part of Internet gaming.
  • (British, slang, archaic) One sentenced to transportation for a crime.
  • (British, slang) a prisoner, a criminal.
  • * 1934 , , Thank You, Jeeves
  • On both these occasions I had ended up behind the bars, and you might suppose that an old lag like myself would have been getting used to it by now.
  • (snooker) A method of deciding which player shall start. Both players simultaneously strike a cue ball from the baulk line to hit the top cushion and rebound down the table; the player whose ball finishes closest to the baulk cushion wins.
  • One who lags; that which comes in last.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • the lag of all the flock
  • The fag-end; the rump; hence, the lowest class.
  • * Shakespeare
  • the common lag of people
  • A stave of a cask, drum, etc.; especially (engineering) one of the narrow boards or staves forming the covering of a cylindrical object, such as a boiler, or the cylinder of a carding machine or steam engine.
  • A bird, the greylag.
  • Usage notes

    In casual use, lag' and (latency) are used synonymously for “delay between initiating an action and the effect”, with '''lag''' more casual. In formal use, ''latency'' is the technical term, while ' lag is used when latency is greater than usual, particularly in internet gaming.

    Synonyms

    * (delay) latency

    Derived terms

    * time lag * jet lag * lagging jacket * lag screw

    Verb

    (lagg)
  • to fail to keep up (the pace), to fall behind
  • * 1596 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Canto I
  • Behind her farre away a Dwarfe did lag , / That lasie seemd in being ever last, / Or wearied with bearing of her bag / Of needments at his backe.
  • * 1616 , George Chapman, The Odysseys of Homer
  • Lazy beast! / Why last art thou now? Thou hast never used / To lag thus hindmost
  • * 1717 , The Metamorphoses of Ovid translated into English verse under the direction of Sir Samuel Garth by John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Joseph Addison, William Congreve and other eminent hands
  • While he, whose tardy feet had lagg'd behind, / Was doom'd the sad reward of death to find.
  • * 1798 , Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in seven parts
  • Brown skeletons of leaves that lag / My forest-brook along
  • * 2004 , — The New Yorker, 5 April 2004
  • Over the next fifty years, by most indicators dear to economists, the country remained the richest in the world. But by another set of numbers—longevity and income inequality—it began to lag behind Northern Europe and Japan.
  • to cover (for example, pipes) with felt strips or similar material
  • * c. 1974 , , The Building
  • Outside seems old enough: / Red brick, lagged pipes, and someone walking by it / Out to the car park, free.
  • (UK, slang, archaic) To transport as a punishment for crime.
  • * De Quincey
  • She lags us if we poach.
  • To cause to lag; to slacken.
  • * Heywood
  • To lag his flight.

    Derived terms

    * lagging * laggard

    See also

    * tardy

    Anagrams

    * * ----

    lap

    English

    Etymology 1

    Old English '' (skirt or flap of a garment), from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The loose part of a coat; the lower part of a garment that plays loosely; a skirt; an apron.
  • An edge; a border; a hem, as of cloth.
  • The part of the clothing that lies on the knees or thighs when one sits down; that part of the person thus covered; figuratively, a place of rearing and fostering; as, to be reared in the lap of luxury.
  • The upper legs of a seated person.
  • The boy was sitting on his mother's lap
  • (archaic, euphemistic) The female pudenda.
  • (construction) component that overlaps or covers any portion of the same or adjacent component.
  • Derived terms
    * lapdance, lap-dance, lap dance * lapdog * lapmark * laptop

    Verb

    (lapp)
  • To enfold; to hold as in one's lap; to cherish.
  • * Dryden
  • Her garment spreads, and laps him in the folds.
  • To rest or recline in a lap, or as in a lap.
  • * Praed
  • to lap his head on lady's breast

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) , (etyl) dial. vravle'' "to wind", (etyl) ''goluppare "to wrap, fold up" (from (etyl)). More at envelop, develop The sense of "to get a lap ahead (of someone) on a track" is from 1847, on notion of "overlapping." The noun meaning "a turn around a track" (1861) is from this sense.

    Verb

    (lapp)
  • To fold; to bend and lay over or on something.
  • to lap a piece of cloth
  • to wrap around, enwrap, wrap up
  • to lap a bandage around a finger
  • * Isaac Newton
  • About the paper I lapped several times a slender thread of very black silk.
  • to envelop, enfold
  • lapped in luxury
  • to wind around
  • To place or lay (one thing) so as to overlap another.
  • One laps roof tiles so that water can run off.
  • To polish, e.g., a surface, until smooth.
  • To be turned or folded; to lie partly on or over something; to overlap.
  • The cloth laps''' back; the boats '''lap'''; the edges '''lap .
  • * Grew
  • The upper wings are opacous; at their hinder ends, where they lap over, transparent, like the wing of a fly.
  • To overtake a straggler in a race by completing one more whole lap than the straggler.
  • To cut or polish with a lap, as glass, gems, cutlery, etc.
  • Derived terms
    * lapper

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act or process of lapping.
  • That part of any substance or fixture which extends over, or lies upon, or by the side of, a part of another; as, the lap of a board; also, the measure of such extension over or upon another thing.
  • The amount by which a slide valve at its half stroke overlaps a port in the seat, being equal to the distance the valve must move from its mid stroke position in order to begin to open the port. Used alone, lap refers to outside lap. See Outside lap (below).
  • The state or condition of being in part extended over or by the side of something else; or the extent of the overlapping; as, the second boat got a lap of half its length on the leader.
  • (sports) One circuit around a race track, or one traversal down and then back the length of a pool; as, to run twenty laps; to win by three laps, to swim two laps.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2012 , date=May 13 , author=Andrew Benson , title=Williams's Pastor Maldonado takes landmark Spanish Grand Prix win , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Alonso's second place moves him into a tie on points at the head of the championship with Sebastian Vettel, who was sixth in his Red Bull, passing Button, then Hamilton and finally Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg in quick succession in the closing laps .}}
  • In card playing and other games, the points won in excess of the number necessary to complete a game; — so called when they are counted in the score of the following game.
  • A sheet, layer, or bat, of cotton fiber prepared for the carding machine.
  • A piece of brass, lead, or other soft metal, used to hold a cutting or polishing powder in cutting glass, gems, and the like, or in polishing cutlery, etc. It is usually in the form of wheel or disk, which revolves on a vertical axis.
  • Derived terms
    * lap of honor/lap of honour

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) lapian'', from (etyl) .

    Verb

    (lapp)
  • (ambitransitive) To take (liquid) into the mouth with the tongue; to lick up with a quick motion of the tongue.
  • * Shakespeare
  • They'll take suggestion as a cat laps milk.
  • * Sir K. Digby
  • The dogs by the River Nilus's side, being thirsty, lap hastily as they run along the shore.
  • (of water) To wash against a surface with a splashing sound; to swash.
  • * Tennyson
  • I heard the ripple washing in the reeds, / And the wild water lapping on the crag.
    Derived terms
    * lapper