Flag. (Danish, flag.)
A black flag is the emblem of piracy or of no quarter. (See Black Flags.)
To unfurl the black flag. To declare war The curtain which used to hang before the door of Ayeshah, Mahomet’s favourite wife, was taken for a national flag, and is regarded by Mussulmans as the most precious of relics. It is black, and is never unfolded except as a declaration of war.
A red flag. To display a red flag is to defy or dare to battle. Red is the emblem of blood. The Roman signal for battle.
To get one’s flag. To become an admiral. Formerly the captain of a flagship was called a “flag-officer.”
“I do not believe that the bullet is cast that is to deprive you of life, Jack, youʹll get your flag, as I hope to get mine.”—Kingston: The Three Admírals, xiii.
To lower one’s flag, to eat humble pie to eat the leek, to confess oneself in the wrong, to eat one’s own words.
“The Association after systematically opposing the views of the National Congress, had to lower the flag and pass a rêsolution in favour of simultaneous examinations.”—Nineteenth Century (April, 1894, page 670)
