Poor overworked English-language words!
Like, I don’t mean words like, like. I mean words like the poor word, run. The dictionary definition for that one runs to a page and a half. Its somewhat less stressed and overburdened country cousin is
FLAG
Seems simple enough – a colored, often patterned piece of cloth, representing countries, provinces, states, corporations, etc. A visit to my American friend revealed that, of 14 houses on his cul-de-sac, 8 of them proudly, patriotically displayed the Stars and Stripes. But….
To my gardener wife, a flag is an iris, or similar, broad-leafed plants
To a landscaper or paver, a flag is a thin flat stone, used to create walkways or driveways.
To a hawk or falcon, a flag is a tuft of feathers on the leg.
To a hunter, a flag is the tail of a deer, or of his hunting dog.
To a journalist, a flag is the nameplate of his newspaper or magazine.
As a verb, flag can mean to affix a flag(s), as on a ship or building.
Flag can mean to signal or warn – as to flag a taxi or a bus.
My Father used to describe scantily clad females as, “Not wearing enough clothes to flag a handcar.”
The meaning of the term handcar will be provided upon request, at no additional cost. I have ridden on a handcar several times, sometimes assisting to propel them. Their gasoline-powered replacements came to be known as jiggers.
Flag can mean to mark a file, or other, for attention.
I’m going to flag his tax return for an audit.
Lastly, flag can mean to diminish in strength, energy or interest.
My enthusiasm for this project is beginning to flag.
I am going to wave the white flag for now, but I’ll be back on Wednesday.
Archon's Den 
Interesting. I wasn’t aware of the flat stone flag…
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Sometimes known as flagstone, it can be naturally-occurring, thin, flat stones, or, sedimentary rock can be quarried, and chisel-split horizontally. Near my hometown on the Bruce Peninsula, there were two such quarries. Flagstone was quite common. 🙂
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Love that, thank you for the lesson! I used to use the word “fire” to explain how ambiguous words can be. From now on, I’ll use “flag” 🙂
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No matter how much we try, and how precise we try to be, the language always seems to be able to say something we didn’t intend. 😳
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I once tried an exercise during a long meeting where we seemed to struggle and go in circles. I handed out 3×5 cards and asked everyone to write down the definition of the topic we were discussing (it was a single word). Out of the dozen+ people in the room we had 6 different definitions 😀
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