lazy

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

English

Etymology

Attested since 1540, origin uncertain. Probably from Low German and Middle Low German lasich (“slack, feeble, lazy”), from las, from Proto-Germanic *lasiwaz, *laskaz (“feeble, weak”), from Proto-Indo-European *las- (“weak”).

Akin to Dutch leuzig (“lazy”), Old Norse lasinn (“limpy, tired, weak”), Old English lesu, lysu (“false, evil, base”). More at lush.

An alternate etymology traces lazy to Early Modern English laysy, a derivative of lay (plural lays +‎ -y) in the same way that tipsy is derived from tip. See lay.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈleɪzi/
• Rhymes: -eɪzi

Adjective

lazy (comparative lazier, superlative laziest)

1. Unwilling to do work or make an effort; disinclined to exertion.
   • 1610, Alexander Cooke, Pope Joane, in William Oldys, editor, The Harleian Miscellany: or, A Collection of Scarce, Curious, and Entertaining Pamphlets and Tracts, as well in Manuscript as in Print, Found in the Late Earl of Oxford's Library: Interspersed with Historical, Political, and Critical Notes: With a Table of the Contents, and an Alphabetical Index, volume IV, London: Printed for T[homas] Osborne, in Gray's-Inn, 1744, OCLC 5325177; republished as John Maltham, editor, The Harleian Miscellany; or, A Collection of Scarce, Curious, and Entertaining Pamphlets and Tracts, as well in Manuscript as in Print, Found in the Late Earl of Oxford's Library, Interspersed with Historical, Political, and Critical Notes, volume IV, London: Printed for R. Dutton, 1808–1811, OCLC 30776079, page 95:

     If there bee any lasie fellow, any that cannot away with worke, any that would wallow in pleasures, hee is hastie to be priested. And when hee is made one, and has gotten a benefice, he consorts with his neighbour priests, who are altogether given to pleasures; and then both hee, and they, live, not like Christians, but like epicures; drinking, eating, feasting, and revelling, till the cow come home, as the saying is.
2. Causing or characterised by idleness; relaxed or leisurely.

3. Showing a lack of effort or care.

   lazy writing

4. Sluggish; slow-moving.

5. Lax:
   1. Droopy.

   2. (optometry) Of an eye, squinting because of a weakness of the eye muscles.
6. (of a cattle brand) Turned so that (the letter) is horizontal instead of vertical.

   Coordinate term: flying
7. (computing theory) Employing lazy evaluation; not calculating results until they are immediately required.

8. (UK, obsolete or dialect) Wicked; vicious.

Synonyms

• (unwilling to work): bone-idle, idle, indolent, slothful, work-shy
• See also Thesaurus:lazy

Derived terms

Collocations

Translations

Verb

lazy (third-person singular simple present lazies, present participle lazying, simple past and past participle lazied)

1. (informal) To laze, act in a lazy manner.

Noun

lazy (plural lazies)

1. A lazy person.
   • 1898, Jason E. Hammond, “Work and Reward” in Suggestive Programs for Special Day Exercises, Lansing, Michigan: Department of Public Instruction for District Schools, p. ,^[4]

     The dudes and noodles, cads and snobs, had better move away,

     This busy land can’t spare the room for lazies, such as they,

     To foreign climate let them go and there forever stay.

     Ours is a land for busy workers.
2. (obsolete) Sloth (animal).

References

Anagrams

• Zyla