[f. FLAG sb.4]
1. trans. To place a flag over or upon; to decorate or adorn with flags. To flag out (a race-course): to mark out by flags.
1875. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, II. II. i. §6. 511. Any rider in a steeplechase, where the ground is not flagged out.
1889. Times, 1 Oct., 3/3. In honour of the day all the official buildings here were flagged.
2. a. To inform or warn by flag-signals. b. To communicate (information) by flag-signals. c. To inform by flag-signals that. d. To decoy (game, esp. deer) by waving some object like a flag to excite the animal’s attention or curiosity.
1884. G. O. Shields, Antelope Hunting in Montana, in Harper’s Mag., Aug., 367/2. I will give you a point or two on flagging antelope.
1885. T. Roosevelt, Hunting Trips, vi. 181. One method of hunting them [antelopes] is to … ‘flag’ them up to the hunters by waving a red handkerchief or some other object to and fro in the air.
1886. Leeds Mercury, Nov. At Mineke some men working in a limekiln flagged the train on account of an obstruction on the track.
1887. Pall Mall G., 24 March, 11/1. A map of the battle of Hasheen … was flagged across Wimbledon Common.
1893. Capt. King, Foes in Ambush, 51. I flagged old Feeny half an hour ago that they hadn’t come through here.
