verbverb sags, verb sagging, verb sagged

• 1Sink, subside, or bulge downwards under weight or pressure or through lack of strength.

  ‘she let her head sag lower and lower’

  More example sentences

  • ‘the bed sagged in the middle’
  • ‘The albums lined his walls on wooden shelves that sagged under their weight.’
  • ‘Two of the hardest hours of his life later Kaerin sagged against a wall and slid to it's base, letting his head fall back against the cold stone.’
  • ‘She sagged against me, using my supernatural strength as a wall against her drooping form.’
  • ‘Having finally found the locker room in the basement of the police station, Sam made sure he was alone, then sagged against one wall.’
  • ‘Once he was gone the women sagged against the wall she was bound to.’
  • ‘Relief made my knees weak, and I sagged against the wall.’
  • ‘She moved to help me off my knees and back to the bed where I sagged down.’
  • ‘She sagged against him, letting him support her weight.’
  • ‘I laid him in my own bed and pulled off his filthy boots, then sagged down at his side on the floor.’
  • ‘I let out a long breath and sagged against the desk.’
  • ‘Her shoulders dropped three inches as she sagged against the doorway, shaking her head and laughing a little.’
  • ‘I wheezed out a puff of air and then gradually sagged down along with my body.’
  • ‘After they left, Mary sagged against the cushions.’
  • ‘Alexander sagged against the counter and relaxed.’
  • ‘He sagged against the railing and buried his face into his palm.’
  • ‘Tom Piper sagged against the glass counter near the cash register.’
  • ‘Once inside, he closed the door behind him, and sagged against the stout wood.’
  • ‘The shelves of our bookshops are sagging under the weight of publications that offer alternative therapies for our maladies - but usually with a religious world-view or technique behind them.’
  • ‘I felt my body sagging beneath me, and I could barely stand upright.’
  • ‘Her thin shoulders sagged beneath her cotton sleeping kimono.’
  • ‘She thrust the basket at him, and he was so startled that his knees sagged beneath the weight.’
  • ‘Fueled by my sister's incessant shopping, every surface sags under the weight of knick-knacks and geegaws.’
  • ‘The religious dialogue and structure of the narrative eventually sags under its own weight.’
  • ‘Many fences sag or are pulled out of shape by plants growing on them or for other reasons.’

  Synonyms

  sink, subside, slump, crumple, loll, flop

  curve down, hang down, dip, droop, swag, bulge, bag

  View synonyms

  1. 1.1Hang down loosely or unevenly.
     ‘stockings that sagged at the knees’
     More example sentences

     • ‘It is the central point of your body and, if you are male, by the time you get to 35, it is usually beginning to sag, hanging over your trousers and adding an extra half-dozen to the six-pack you were once so proud of.’
     • ‘Those trousers sagged so low beneath his ample waist it appeared as if at any moment they might fall about his ankles.’
     • ‘On the other hand: if the muscle-bound dude's tank top looks like it has been through the wash about 50 times, and if it's a bit loose, and sagging or drooping in the wrong places - then yes, maybe.’
     • ‘Clothes that pull, sag, buckle or droop add pounds, so when trying out something, dance and twirl around the dressing room.’
     • ‘She had strawberry blond hair and a blue dirty dress that sagged at her knees.’
     • ‘His uniform was one size fit all, but for him it sagged and drooped in large blue wrinkles around his waist.’
     • ‘Depending on which way the canvases are hung, the paint seems to sag with or resist the force of gravity.’
     • ‘Any slight injury to the facial nerve can cause the face to droop or sag.’
     • ‘Ten actors dressed in black wear white masks with drooping, sad eyes and sagging, wide, miserable frowns.’
     • ‘His contours are beginning to sag, his muscles to loosen and droop.’
     • ‘He was wearing black basketball shoes without socks, sagging black jeans with a silver-studded leather belt, and a wife-beater black tank top.’
     • ‘Vitamin C therapy is known to combat mottling, wrinkling and sagging skin resulting from sun overexposure, a common concern among active people.’
     • ‘He also does eyebrow and forehead elevations, to eliminate drooping eyebrows and sagging foreheads, for about $2,500.’
     • ‘With deft fingers, she carefully sculpted the whitish-gray mass into a semblance of a man, a fat, chunky man with sagging limbs, but a man nonetheless.’
     • ‘Photoaging involves the premature aging of skin, evidenced by mottling, wrinkling, and sagging caused by a compromise of the elastic tissue.’
     • ‘Wrinkles and sagging cheeks are a thing of the past.’
     • ‘Too, she likes the disarray of rehearsal clothes - wrapped sweaters, sagging leg warmers, torn practice tutus.’
     • ‘The majority of men my age have beer bellies, sagging pecs, wrinkled skin on their arms and legs, and frequent health problems.’
     • ‘They made their way carefully inside, trudging past sagging curls of wallpaper and rusted and useless light sconces.’
     Synonyms

     curve down, hang down, dip, droop, swag, bulge, bag

     View synonyms
• 2Decline to a lower level, usually temporarily.

  ‘exports are forging ahead while home sales sag’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Yet the level of political interest sagged in inverse relation to the proliferation of candidates.’
  • ‘Afterwards, the American team became discouraged by the loss and their morale sagged.’
  • ‘If you wrote a single book and it came out last year and you want to lift sagging sales, is it so awful to go to current releases and add a reader recommendation to your old book?’
  • ‘While the box office has been sagging, DVD sales and rentals have increased 676 percent since 2000.’
  • ‘Other consumer product sales may be sagging, but lingerie is booming.’
  • ‘Unemployment averages 8.9%, retail sales are sagging, and euro zone manufacturing production shrank in April.’
  • ‘With sales sagging, why is the clothing retailer expanding?’
  • ‘Sales have sagged recently, but the Hummer H2 is Detroit's biggest aftermarket success story.’
  • ‘Increases occurred in shotshell and centerfire rifle cartridge sales, while rimfire ammunition sales sagged.’
  • ‘The funds had about 28 per cent of their assets in stocks and their value fell as stocks sagged.’
  • ‘If that happens, a few years will not be enough to salvage the country's sagging economic power.’
  • ‘The man who rebuilt sagging fortunes at TCU and Alabama, among other stops, was shellshocked by last year's 4-8 disaster.’
  • ‘Despite this stellar past, Howard's law school has struggled in recent years with sagging enrollment and lackluster bar exam passage rates of its students.’
  • ‘The past year's sagging economy has caused many schools to retool their recruiting tactics, according to findings in a new national survey released last month.’
  • ‘And getting 20 to 25 minutes against reserves could be the perfect tonic for Tinsley's sagging confidence.’
  • ‘Selig's latest outburst ought to really help sagging attendance, because as we all know there's nothing like a failing team to get fans out to the ballpark.’
  • ‘The program is the latest in a number of moves Army officials have initiated in order to boost sagging recruitment and help soldiers obtain a higher education.’
  • ‘That move is widely credited with reversing the airlines sagging financial fortunes.’
  • ‘Proponents say biofuels could help end our dependence on oil imports, boost a sagging agriculture industry and reduce environmental damage caused by burning fossil fuels.’
  • ‘Voltage sags are the most common power quality problem.’

  Synonyms

  falter, weaken, languish, flag, fade, wilt, shrivel, wither, fail, fall

  decline, fall, go down, drop, drop off, fall off, turn down, decrease, diminish, reduce, sink

  View synonyms

noun

• 1A downward curve or bulge in a structure caused by weakness or excessive weight or pressure.

  ‘a sag in the middle necessitated a third set of wheels’

  More example sentences

  • ‘She stood and felt the sag of his weight against her as she dropped him back against the mattress.’
  • ‘There's a bit of a sag in the middle of the album, but on the whole Hail To The Thief is a noticeably more inspiring record than Kid A or Amnesiac.’
  • ‘A common criticism of telescoping posts is that they affect seat height; make sure you readjust your seat height to compensate for the sag of the post under your riding weight.’
  • ‘Sure enough here is this mile long limo out the front the same as the ones in Las Vegas that had the sag in the middle.’
  • ‘But then like millions of others who enjoyed a great young life, I decided to accept middle age, with its wrinkles and sags gracefully, and throw the bikinis away.’
  • ‘That's when the sad resignation settled in and my shoulders were inclined to have a good sag.’
  • ‘UVA rays are at their worst in summertime, constantly penetrating our epidermis, damaging our collagen and elastin fibres and creating wrinkles, crinkles, sags and bags all the more likely.’
  • ‘Clinging ferociously to the golden days of your youth only illuminates your jowls and sags more brightly, my friend.’
  • ‘At the beginning of the year, we look in the mirror and see sags and wrinkles we would ignore in an Albanian or a Fiji islander.’
  • ‘Look for areas where the fasteners may have pulled loose, and for any sags in the gutter run.’
  • ‘His entire body seems to shift from a tense stance to a casual sag.’
  • ‘Targets ride on an enclosed monorail which prevents the sag and bounce associated with wire systems.’
  • ‘We spent so much time searching for the bra that would make up for the sag.’
  • ‘With a heavy sag of his whole body, his expression turned to one of deep sadness.’
  • ‘The small gaps and sags may be tolerable to an individual, but the purchaser must know he or she is buying something that was manufactured for millions.’
  • ‘If you are painting a door on its hinges you are more susceptible to drips and sags, so don't apply too much paint.’
  • ‘With time, however, a ski tip would begin to lose its curve and sag, especially when the skis were used in wet, sloppy snow.’

  1. 1.1Geometry mass noun The amount of a sag, measured as the perpendicular distance from the middle of the curve to the straight line between the two supporting points.
     ‘Since rack-mounted systems must fit within a specified vertical envelope, having a large amount of sag can also cause the enclosure to breach this envelope and affect adjacent systems.’
     More example sentences

     • ‘Rheological properties: Materials are required to be able to resist flow along an open inclined channel and sag in a horizontal channel.’
     • ‘We used connectors provided by Tandemloc, part #12900BA - 1PZ, as they were very reliable and allowed no sag when connected.’
     • ‘Thermal sag of this rift permitted accumulation of thick Triassic-Jurassic sandstone sequences.’
     • ‘It is proposed that subuction rollback can help explain some of the characteristics of the rift basins such as non-uniform lithospheric extension, deep sag basins, and the diachronous onset and termination of rifting.’
• 2A decline, especially a temporary one.

  ‘Instead of falling, the dollar has risen, helped along by the sag in the euro as it becomes apparent that the eurozone economic model is on the road to nowhere.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘The only lag in energy - and thus my only very minor criticism - was a brief sag just before the duel scene, which was itself a tad rushed.’
  • ‘UPS systems also offer protection from momentary outages and voltage sags.’
  • ‘Indeed, housing demand has not suffered, despite the sag in confidence for the future, which home buyers must have before making such a major financial commitment.’
  • ‘Although the grid is reportedly 99.9 percent reliable, blackouts or sags in the power supply can cause damage far greater than would at first seem evident.’
  • ‘Other situations affecting power quality are transients or spikes, surges or over-voltages, noise and sags or brownouts.’

noun