It is Flag Day, and the US flag is on my brain. I can think of erect, unfurled, and at attention to describe a flag flying perpendicularly to the ground in a strong wind, but I feel like I’ve heard another word. Am I missing something?
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3It is flying.– LawrenceCommented Jun 15, 2022 at 5:01
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1Erect?.........– aparente001Commented Jun 15, 2022 at 7:13
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Related: Which verb describes the movement of a flag or clothes on clothes line?– ermanenCommented Jun 15, 2022 at 8:40
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It could be described as flying but flying also refers to the practice of sticking a flag on a flagpole regardless of the wind (example of the latter: "What rules apply when flying flags in the UK?").– Stuart FCommented Jun 15, 2022 at 9:49
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1Near-horizontally– Edwin AshworthCommented Jun 15, 2022 at 14:02
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5 Answers
Flying, horizontal or some combination of both.
The Lunar Flag Assembly was created to
make [the flag] appear to fly on the airless Moon as it would float in the wind on Earth.
Indirectly, the term horizontal is used throughout that article, such as in the following sentence.
Pete Conrad and Alan Bean, the crew of Apollo 12, had trouble with the latch mechanism which was supposed to keep the supporting pole horizontal, so the flag they deployed drooped at an angle.
Note that supporting pole is supposed to be horizontal, and therefore hold the flag horizontal as well.
Flags stand out in a stiff breeze.
A search in Google books provides some examples:
From his window if he slid far enough down the pillow Jackson could see the flag on the church tower and know the strength and direction of the wind, and in March the first westerly of the year had the flag standing out straight.
Reservoir 13: A Novel - Jon Mcgregor · 2017
As Sidney Griffith explains, in Ephrem's “paradoxical view, the image of Nisibis, with her symbolic Persian flag standing out in the breeze, came to stand as a symbol for the defeat of the very paganism which, by the poet's own ...
Constantine and the Captive Christians of Persia: Martyrdom ... - Kyle Smith · 2019
There was a flagpole surrounded by chrysanthemums , the American flag standing out straight in the stiff wind .
Dream Country: A Novel - Luanne Rice · 2008
Meagan looked up at the Canadian maple leaf flag standing out in the ever-stiffening south wind, and then sighted down the road toward the bridge.
Red Sky in the Morning - Bill Hamann · 2008
UNFURLED make or become spread out from a rolled or folded state, especially in order to be open to the wind.
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1Welcome to EL&U...you have posted a few interesting answers, but if you are quoting a source, you must cite the source to avoid legal complications...BTW, LQ answers like this are often deleted Commented Jun 17, 2022 at 18:11
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"Waving"
-Francis Scott Key (okay, not his exact phrasing)
MW (verb definition 2) references waving as a feature of a flag.
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"Does[...]yet wave" probably did not look like this after all that went on, those vocal leaps and the range. Feel free to add another justification. Commented Dec 16, 2022 at 3:20
The only term that comes to mind is "Full Mast" but that doesn't describe the way it's flowing in the wind - that describes the height at which it is in relation to the pole.
I suppose you could say the flag is flapping or swaying with the breeze?
