Flag’s Down (The)
. Indicative of distress. When the face is pale the “flag is down.” Alluding to the ancient custom of taking down the flag of theatres during Lent, when the theatres were closed.
“ʹTis Lent in your cheeks, the flag’s down.”—Dodsley’s Old Plays (vol. v. p. 314, article, “Mad World.”)
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Entry taken from
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable,
edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.