What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Lag vs Rag - What's the difference?

lag | rag |

As nouns the difference between lag and rag

is that lag is a gap, a delay; an interval created by something not keeping up; a latency while rag is tattered clothes.

As verbs the difference between lag and rag

is that lag is to fail to keep up (the pace), to fall behind while rag is to become tattered.

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

    * * ----

    rag

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) . Cognate with Swedish ragg.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (in the plural) Tattered clothes.
  • * (and other bibliographic particulars) (Dryden)
    • Virtue, though in rags , will keep me warm.
  • A piece of old cloth; a tattered piece of cloth; a shred, a tatter.
  • * (and other bibliographic particulars) (Milton)
    • Cowls, hoods, and habits, with their wearers, tossed, / And fluttered into rags .
  • * (and other bibliographic particulars) (Fuller)
    • Not having otherwise any rag of legality to cover the shame of their cruelty.
  • A shabby, beggarly fellow; a ragamuffin.
  • * (and other bibliographic particulars) (Ben Jonson)
    • The other zealous rag is the compositor.
  • * (and other bibliographic particulars) (Spenser)
    • Upon the proclamation, they all came in, both tag and rag .
  • A ragged edge in metalworking.
  • (nautical, slang) A sail, or any piece of canvas.
  • * (and other bibliographic particulars) (Lowell)
    • Our ship was a clipper with every rag set.
  • (slang, pejorative) A newspaper, magazine.
  • (rfc-sense) (poker slang) A card that appears to help no one.
  • (rfc-sense) (poker slang) A low card.
    • Derived terms
    * on the rag * lose one's rag * ragwort * smell of an oily rag

    Verb

    (ragg)
  • To become tattered.
    • (Webster 1913)

    Etymology 2

    origin; perhaps the same word as Etymology 1, above.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A coarse kind of rock, somewhat cellular in texture; ragstone.
  • * 2003 , (Peter Ackroyd), The Clerkenwell Tales , page 1:
    • the three walls around the garden, each one of thirty-three feet, were built out of three layers of stone — pebble stone, flint and rag stone.

    Verb

    (ragg)
  • To break (ore) into lumps for sorting.
  • To cut or dress roughly, as a grindstone.

    • Etymology 3

    Origin uncertain.

    Verb

    (ragg)
  • To scold or rail at; to rate; to tease; to torment; to banter.
  • To drive a car or another vehicle in a hard, fast or unsympathetic manner.
  • To tease or torment, especially at a university; to bully, to haze.
    • Derived terms
    * rag the puck * rag on

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (dated) A prank or practical joke.
  • (UK, Ireland) A society run by university students for the purpose of charitable fundraising.

    • Derived terms

    * rag day * rag week

    Etymology 4

    Perhaps from (ragged). Compare later (ragtime).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete, US) An informal dance party featuring music played by African-American string bands.
  • A ragtime song, dance or piece of music.

    • Anagrams

    *

    References

    * Weisenberg, Michael (2000) The Official Dictionary of Poker. MGI/Mike Caro University. ISBN 978-1880069523 ----