Chapter Safeguard to Sagoin of S by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

1. To sink, in the middle, by its weight or under applied pressure, below a horizontal line or plane; as, a line or cable supported by its ends sags, though tightly drawn; the floor of a room sags; hence, to lean, give way, or settle from a vertical position; as, a building may sag one way or another; a door sags on its hinges.

2. Fig.: To lose firmness or elasticity; to sink; to droop; to flag; to bend; to yield, as the mind or spirits, under the pressure of care, trouble, doubt, or the like; to be unsettled or unbalanced. [R.]

The mind I sway by, and the heart I bear,
Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear.

Shak.

3. To loiter in walking; to idle along; to drag or droop heavily.

To sag to leeward (Naut.), to make much leeway by reason of the wind, sea, or current; to drift to leeward; — said of a vessel. Totten.

Sag
(Sag), v. t. To cause to bend or give way; to load.

Sag
(Sag), n. State of sinking or bending; sagging.

Saga
(Sa"ga) n.; pl. Sagas [Icel., akin to E. saw a saying. See Say, and cf. Saw.] A Scandinavian legend, or heroic or mythic tradition, among the Norsemen and kindred people; a northern European popular historical or religious tale of olden time.

And then the blue-eyed Norseman told
A saga of the days of old.

Longfellow.

Sagacious
(Sa*ga"cious) a. [L. sagax, sagacis, akin to sagire to perceive quickly or keenly, and probably to E. seek. See Seek, and cf. Presage.]

1. Of quick sense perceptions; keen-scented; skilled in following a trail.

Sagacious of his quarry from so far.

Milton.

2. Hence, of quick intellectual perceptions; of keen penetration and judgment; discerning and judicious; knowing; far- sighted; shrewd; sage; wise; as, a sagacious man; a sagacious remark.

Instinct . . . makes them, many times, sagacious above our apprehension.

Dr. H. More.

Only sagacious heads light on these observations, and reduce them into general propositions.

Locke.

Syn. — See Shrewd.

— Sa*ga"cious*ly, adv. — Sa*ga"cious*ness, n.

Sagacity
(Sa*gac"i*ty) n. [L. sagacitas. See Sagacious.] The quality of being sagacious; quickness or acuteness of sense perceptions; keenness of discernment or penetration with soundness of judgment; shrewdness.

Some [brutes] show that nice sagacity of smell.

Cowper.

Natural sagacity improved by generous education.

V. Knox.

Syn. — Penetration; shrewdness; judiciousness. — Sagacity, Penetration. Penetration enables us to enter into the depths of an abstruse subject, to detect motives, plans, etc. Sagacity adds to penetration a keen, practical judgment, which enables one to guard against the designs of others, and to turn everything to the best possible advantage.

Sagamore
(Sag"a*more) n.