flag on the play

The phrase "flag on the play" originates from American football and is used to signal a penalty or, metaphorically, to indicate a problem in various contexts.

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Definition

B2American Football

(sports, slang)A penalty marker thrown by an official to signal a rule violation.

Example

  • The referee threw a flag on the play for holding.
  • After the flag on the play, the team was penalized ten yards.

C1General

(informal, idiomatic)A metaphorical expression used to indicate that a mistake or issue has been noticed.

Example

  • There's a flag on the play in the project timeline; we need to reassess our deadlines.
  • When the proposal was found to have several errors, the manager called a flag on the play.

Similar

Terms that have similar or relatively close meanings to "flag on the play":

yellow flagflag gunfalse flaggedflag rankred flagfalse flaggingfalse starttrick playfly the flagstrike one's flagshow the flagblack flagbeige flaggreen flag