Also 7 lagg. [app. a. ON. lǫgg, recorded only in the sense ‘rim of a barrel’ (cf. 1 b); but the Sw. lagg means also ‘stave,’ whence laggkärl vessel composed of staves, cask.]
1. A stave of a barrel. Now dial.
1672. Hoole, Comenius’ Vis. World, 165. The Cooper … maketh Hoops of Hassel-rods … and Lags of Timber.
1676. Burgery of Sheffield, 209. For mendyng the church yatis and barrell laggs and nayles 4s. 4d.
1869. in Lonsdale Gloss.
† b. (See quot.) Obs. rare–0.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 108/1. Lag, is a piece put into the top of a Barrel staff that is broken off at the Grooping.
2. One of the staves or laths forming the covering of a band-drum or a steam boiler or cylinder, or the upper casing of a carding machine.
1847. Specif. Sykes’ & Ogden’s Patent, No. 11798. On these bands [in a carding engine] we fix a continued series of lags or small blocks of wood.
1875. in Knight, Dict. Mech.
3. Comb.: lag-link, a link for holding a lag or bar (Cent. Dict.); lag-machine, a machine for shaping wooden lags (see sense 2); lag-screw, (a) a flat-headed screw used to secure lags to cylinders or drums; (b) U.S. = coach-screw.
1873. J. Richards, Wood-working Factories, 26. Almost any kind of shafting can be hung with safety on wood screws, or lag screws.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., Lag-machine.
