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.
🇺🇸 US Voice:
🇬🇧 UK Voice:
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