Half-mast

noun, verb, slang

noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The lowered position, half the height of a mast, at which a flag is flown when mourning, especially expressing respect for the deceased. uncountable

    "Any other UK national flags flown alongside the Union Flag when it is at half-mast should also be at half-mast."

  2. 2
    a position some distance below the top of a mast to which a flag is lowered in mourning or to signal distress wordnet
  3. 3
    The lowered position of anything. broadly, uncountable
  4. 4
    An unfashionably short length of a pair of trousers. colloquial, uncountable

    "I looked around. Ari in a green jacket with four inches of fore arm showing and trousers at half mast, Penny and I in mismatched padded jackets and ski trousers which were way too long; and all wearing the silver moon boots that had been the rage in the early eighties."

  5. 5
    The state of having a partially erect penis. euphemistic, uncountable

    "Finally, he was at half-mast, hanging out over the toilet seat, barely erect."

Verb
  1. 1
    To fly a flag in this position. transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
beat the drumdipflagflashglancehail

Example

More examples

"The Canadian flag flew at half-mast on Parliament Hill's Peace Tower to commemorate the Nova Scotia mass killing victims."

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.