- lag
- 1. To move or progress more slowly than normal; to fall behind. 2. The act or condition of falling behind. 3. The time interval between a change in one variable and a consequent change in another variable.- anaphase l. slowing or arrest in the normal migration of chromosomes during anaphase, resulting in such chromosomes being excluded from one of the daughter cells.- homeostatic l. the interval in a homeostatic process between a change of the trait controlled and the appropriate response, due to afferent, efferent, and central components. The l. may be a pure random variable, e.g., the waiting time of an exponential process or the sum of several such processes taking any value greater than zero but with a mean considerably greater than zero; sometimes it may be deterministic or almost so and with a minimum sharply defined and greater than zero for anatomical reasons. For instance, the partial pressures of oxygen and carbon dioxide are controlled in the lungs but based on afferent information obtained from the carotid body that is already dated because of the circulation time of ten seconds or so between the two sites.* * *labiogingival; laparoscopy-assisted gastrectomy; leukocyte antigen group; linguo-axiogingival; lymphangiogram; lymphocyte activation gene
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lag 'lag vb, lagged; lag·ging vi to move, function, or develop with comparative slowness <the child lagged in perceptual development> <symptoms may \lag behind the radiographic changes (Carol J. Johns & Theresa M. Michele)> vt to lag behind <current that \lags the voltage>lag n1) the act or the condition of lagging2) comparative slowness or retardation (as in growth or development)b) the time between the application of a stimulus and the occurrence of the response it causes* * *
(lag) 1. the period of time elapsing between the application of a stimulus and the resulting reaction. 2. see lag phase, under phase.
Medical dictionary. 2011.