Definition of "zig" []

• One of a series of sharp turns or reversals: The zigs and zags of foreign policy. (noun)
• To turn or change direction suddenly. Usually used in contrast to zag: When your opponent zigs, zag! (verb-intransitive)
• To behave erratically or indecisively. Usually used with zag: The market has zigged and zagged for months. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "One knits a rectangular strip, about 3 wide, and attaches it to a bib thing in zig-zag fashion, overlapping itself."
• "The Crash of 1929 and the Depression marked the next zag, followed by the longterm zig sparked by the New Deal and the host of social legislation that went with it."
• "The figures of these men and women straggled past the flower-bed with a curiously irregular movement not unlike that of the white and blue butterflies who crossed the turf in zig-zag flights from bed to bed."