lack

English Online Dictionary. What means lack‎? What does lack mean?

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /læk/
• Homophone: lakh (one pronunciation)
• Rhymes: -æk

Etymology 1

From Middle English lack, lakke, lak, from Old English *læc (“deficiency, lack, want”), from Proto-West Germanic *lak, from Proto-Germanic *laką, *lakaz (“slackness”), from Proto-Germanic *lakaz (“limp, slack, loose, low”), related to *lak(k)ōną (“to blame, reproach”), from Proto-Indo-European *lok-néh₂-. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Lak (“lack”), Middle Low German lack, lak (“lack”), Dutch lak (“lack, deficiency, calumny”), Icelandic lakur (“lacking”). Related also to Middle Dutch laken (“to blame, lack”).

Eclipsed non-native Middle English carence (“absence, lack”), from Old French carence.

Noun

lack (countable and uncountable, plural lacks)

1. A deficiency or need (of something desirable or necessary); an absence, want.

   Antonyms: glut, surplus
2. (obsolete) A defect or failing; moral or spiritual degeneracy.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English lacken, lakken, laken, from Old English læccian, *lacian (“to blame, criticise, lack”), from Proto-West Germanic *lak(k)ōn (“to blame, be lacking”), from Proto-Germanic *lak(k)ōną (“to reproach, blame, be lacking”), from Proto-Indo-European *lok-néh₂-. Cognate with Old Frisian lakia, lekia (“to contest, blame”), Middle Low German lacken, laken (“to reproach, blame, criticise”), Middle Dutch laken (“to disapprove, blame, lack”), Dutch laken (“to blame, reproach”).

Verb

lack (third-person singular simple present lacks, present participle lacking, simple past and past participle lacked)

1. (transitive, stative) To be without, not to have, to need, to require.
2. (intransitive) To be short (of or for something).
3. (intransitive, obsolete) To be in want.
4. (obsolete) To see the deficiency in (someone or something); to find fault with, to malign, reproach.

Derived terms

Related terms

• lackluster

Translations

Etymology 3

Noun

lack (plural lacks)

1. Archaic form of lakh.

   a lack of rupees

Further reading

• Guus Kroonen (2013) “lak(k)on-”, in Alexander Lubotsky, editor, Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11)‎^[1], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 325

See also

• good lack

Anagrams

• calk, kcal

German

Pronunciation

Verb

lack

1. imperative singular of lacken
2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of lacken

Swedish

Etymology

From French lacre (“sealing wax”), from Portuguese laca.

Noun

lack n

1. varnish, lacquer

Declension

Derived terms

• klarlack
• lacknafta
• lackskor
• nagellack

Related terms

• lackera

Adjective

lack (comparative mer lack, superlative mest lack)

1. (colloquial) angry

See also

• lakk

References

• lack in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• lack in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• lack in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)