1. 旗が下部に取り付けられているマスト上部の下からいくらか離れている位置、あるいは弔意を示すための位置(a position some distance below the top of a mast to which a flag is lowered in mourning or to signal distress)
c.1900, Richard Harding Davis, Billy and the Big Stick:
[T]he agents of the steamship lines drowned their sorrow in rum and ran the house flags to half-staff.
1935 May 13, “Ninth Anniversary of Coup”, in New York Times, page 6:
Marshal Joseph Pilsudski, Poland's man of power, died here tonight. . . . Flags were lowered to half staffs.
2005 April 6, Felisa Cardona, “Flag order spurs controversy”, in Denver Post, archived from the originalon7 March 2016, retrieved29Aug. 2011, pageB-01: