Question Details	Asked By	Asked On
raising flag	Camomile_Tea	02/01/08
Does "raising flag" mean anything to you? I originally thought "raising flag" meant "to surrender," but it looks like what "lowering one's flag" means...
Answered By		Answered On
Schoolmarm		02/01/08
Sure! "Raising a flag" usually means that one is calling attention to something. "His question raised all sorts of flags." In fact, it's often "raising a red flag", which is more obvious in meaning. When we're indicating surrender, we use "wave a white flag", which is different. We also sometimes say "dropped the flag" or "the flag went down", which are car-racing references pertaining to the moment when the checkered flag is lowered to start the race. A red flag is raised to stop the race after an accident, and a green one restarts it, so those are sometimes used analogously. Then there's "flagging", as in "He flagged the proposal due to budget constraints". That means he stopped it and is a football reference to the referee dropping a red "flag" (actualy it's a handkerchief, but "flag" sounds better *LOL*) to indicate a foul. JMF

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