Home UK English zag

Meaning of zag in English:

zag

Pronunciation /zaɡ/

noun

  • A sharp change of direction in a zigzag course.

    ‘we travelled in a series of zigs and zags’
    • ‘His career has been fraught with erratic zigs and zags.’
    • ‘The only thing that threatens the company, in fact, is a change in the game, an industry zig to the company's zag.’

verbverb zags, verb zagging, verb zagged

[no object]

  • Make a sharp change of direction.

    ‘a long path zigged and zagged through the woods’
    • ‘I chuckled lightly as one of the lower balloons disengaged itself from the pole and lazily drifted upward, zigging and zagging on the warmish breeze.’
    • ‘I've been stuck on the scratch, zigging and zagging with great effort through the past 4 or 5 days.’
    • ‘He zigged and zagged and she went with him, arm clenched tightly to his.’
    • ‘They weave through the tangled branches of the forest, zigging and zagging, the goshawk right on the thrush's tail, like a shadow.’
    • ‘The four looked up to see a red-headed kid skateboarding into the room, zigging and zagging uncontrollably.’
    • ‘He is fast running straight ahead, and he retains his speed even while zigging and zagging across the field.’
    • ‘In an investment career that started with oil back in the 1960s, Anschutz has usually zigged when others zagged.’
    • ‘The market zigged and zagged and most groups ended little changed.’
    • ‘We descended and scrambled and zigged and zagged and trudged ever on.’
    • ‘They zigged and zagged and made giant colorful shapes and pictures in the sky.’
    • ‘We zigged, we zagged, horns blasted and drivers swore, but we did get to the other side.’
    • ‘The traffic appears to be behaving, but earlier people were just zigging, zagging in and out.’
    • ‘We will be awkwardly zagging while most of our peers happily zig in lockstep.’
    • ‘Receivers zigged when they should have zagged.’
    • ‘Dennis, I think you zigged when you should have zagged with the last comment.’
    • ‘Native speakers argue that we are still zigging when the rest of the world has zagged.’
    • ‘Of course I zigged when I should of zagged and wound up 2 kilometres out of my way.’

Origin

Late 18th century shortening of zigzag.