beige flag
- noun
:
bandera beige
- The racers slowed down as the beige flag was waved, signaling a temporary pause in the competition.
Examples
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During negotiations, both sides agreed to raise a beige flag to halt their disputes for the day.
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He saw the beige flag and knew it was time to stop and wait for further instructions.
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The team raised a beige flag to signal a pause.
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During the negotiations, they displayed a beige flag for a truce.
-
During negotiations, both sides agreed to raise a beige flag to halt their disputes for the day.
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He saw the beige flag and knew it was time to stop and wait for further instructions.
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The racers slowed down as the beige flag was waved, signaling a temporary pause in the competition.
Synonyms
19
2.7
A plain white cloth that people raise to show surrender or ask for a truce
3
4.9
A white flag shown to ask fighters to stop and start talks
1
3.8
A rectangular piece of cloth ships use to send short messages
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is compositionally built from 'beige' (a color) + 'flag' (a signalling cloth), so a B1 learner would infer a literal beige-coloured flag. However, the specific conventionalized meaning of signalling a 'pause' or 'truce' is an arbitrary, culturally mediated mapping of colour to function and is not fully predictable from the constituents alone.
Etymology
The noun beige flag may come from the image of a light beige flag being waved to ask people to pause or call a short truce. That's why the phrase now means a clear signal to 'stop for now' or take a short break.