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lazy. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
lazy, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
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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
Adjective
lazy (comparative lazier, superlative laziest)
- Unwilling to do work or make an effort; disinclined to exertion.
Get out of bed, you lazy lout!
- 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 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.
1913, L. Frank Baum, The Patchwork Girl of Oz, Chicago: The Reilly & Lee Co., published c. 1920, page 308:"I'm too lazy," he said. "My wife says I'm the laziest man in all Oz, and she is a truthful woman. I hate work of any kind, and making a raft is hard work."
- Causing or characterised by idleness; relaxed or leisurely.
I love staying inside and reading on a lazy Sunday.
- Showing a lack of effort or care.
- lazy writing
- Sluggish; slow-moving.
We strolled along beside a lazy stream.
- Lax:
- Droopy.
a lazy-eared rabbit
- (optometry) Of an eye, squinting because of a weakness of the eye muscles.
- (of a cattle brand) Turned so that (the letter) is horizontal instead of vertical.
- Coordinate term: flying
2010, The Trail Drivers of Texas:There was probably more cattle bearing the Lazy S brand marketed than those of any other ranch in the world.
2002, American Cowboy, volume 9, number 3, page 60:The Zuliagas branded a Lazy B. In order to distinguish his cows from theirs for the drive back to Arizona, Mr. Day added a britchen brand across their butts, under their tails.
- (computing theory) Employing lazy evaluation; not calculating results until they are immediately required.
a lazy algorithm
- (UK, obsolete or dialect) Wicked; vicious.
1641, Ben Jonson, The Sad Shepherd:The swilland dropsy enter in
The lazy cuke , and swell his skin
Synonyms
Derived terms
Collocations
with nouns
- lazy person
- lazy man
- lazy woman
- lazy bastard
- lazy morning
- lazy day
- lazy time
- lazy way
Translations
unwilling to work
- Afrikaans: lui (af)
- Albanian: përtac (sq), dembel (sq)
- Arabic: كَسْلَان (kaslān)
- Egyptian Arabic: كسلان (kaslān)
- Armenian: ծույլ (hy) (cuyl)
- Assamese: এলেহুৱা (elehua), লেধা (ledha)
- Azerbaijani: tənbəl (az), ərincək
- Bashkir: ялҡау (yalqaw)
- Basque: nagi
- Bavarian: gstinkert
- Belarusian: ляні́вы (ljanívy)
- Bengali: অলস (bn) (oloś), চিঙ্গা (ciṅga)
- Bikol Central: hugakon (bcl)
- Breton: lezireg (br)
- Bulgarian: лени́в (bg) (lenív), мързели́в (bg) m (mǎrzelív)
- Buryat: залхуу (zalxuu)
- Catalan: mandrós (ca), peresós (ca)
- Cebuano: tapolan
- Cherokee: ᎦᎾᎵ (ganali)
- Chinese:
- Cantonese: 懶/懒 (laan5)
- Eastern Min: 懶/懒 (zh) (lan)
- Mandarin: 懶惰/懒惰 (zh) (lǎnduò), 懶/懒 (zh) (lǎn)
- Chukchi: нывъяӄэн (nyvʺjaqėn)
- Cornish: diek, syger
- Crimean Tatar: erinçek, tenbel
- Czech: líný (cs) m
- Danish: doven (da), lad (da)
- Dutch: lui (nl), werkschuw (nl)
- Elfdalian: lat
- Esperanto: pigra, mallaborema
- Estonian: laisk (et), logardlik
- Ewe: kuvia
- Faroese: latur, dovin
- Finnish: laiska (fi)
- French: paresseux (fr), fainéant (fr)
- Gagauz: dembel
- Galician: arlote m, bacaceiro m, lacazán (gl) m, larchán m, preguiceiro (gl) m, nugallán (gl) m, macandón m, mandrión m, manguán m, loirán m, peilao m
- Georgian: ზარმაცი (ka) (zarmaci)
- German: faul (de)
- Gothic: 𐌻𐌰𐍄𐍃 (lats)
- Greek: τεμπέλης (el) (tempélis)
- Greenlandic: eqiattarpoq
- Guaraní: kaigue
- Hebrew: עָצֵל (he) m (ʻatsel)
- Higaonon: tapulan
- Hindi: आलसी (hi) (ālsī), सुस्त (hi) (sust)
- Hungarian: lusta (hu), rest (hu)
- Hunsrik: faul
- Icelandic: latur (is)
- Ilocano: nasadut
- Indonesian: malas (id)
- Irish: leisciúil, anábhailleach, drogallach, sámh
- Italian: pigro (it)
- Japanese: ナマケモノ (ja) (namakemono), 怠惰な (ja) (たいだな, taida na), ぐうたら (gūtara)
- Khmer: ខ្ជិល (km) (khcɨl)
- Korean: 게으르다 (ko) (geeureuda)
- Kurdish:
- Central Kurdish: تەممەڵ (temmell)
- Ladino: haragan, peresozo, tembel
- Latin: ignavus, piger, segnis
- Latvian: laisks
- Lithuanian: tingus
- Luxembourgish: faul, liddereg (lb)
- Macedonian: мрзлив (mrzliv)
- Malay: malas (ms)
- Maltese: għażżien
- Manx: drollaneagh
- Maori: huhure, mākoko, māngere, pirorehe, toupiore, pakihore, ngehe, makuku, tūkeke, waimori
- Marathi: आळशी m or f (āḷśī)
- Meru: muthao
- Mongolian: залхуу (mn) (zalxuu)
- Nanai: албакто (albakto)
- Norman: ouaîsif (Jersey), pièrcheux (Jersey)
- Northern Mansi: (please verify) савыӈ (sawyň)
- Northern Sami: láiki
- Norwegian:
- Norwegian Bokmål: lat (no), doven (no)
- Norwegian Nynorsk: lat, doven
- Occitan: ociós, peresós
- Old English: slāw
- Pangasinan: mangiras
- Persian: تَنبَل (fa) (tanbal), لس (fa) (las)
- Pitcairn-Norfolk: hillie
- Plautdietsch: mooj, ful
- Polish: leniwy (pl)
- Portuguese: preguiçoso (pt)
- Quechua: qilla
- Romanian: leneș (ro), puturos (ro), indolent (ro), trândav (ro)
- Romansch: pigher, marsch
- Russian: лени́вый (ru) (lenívyj)
- Sanskrit: अलस (sa) (alasa)
- Scottish Gaelic: leisg, dìomhain
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: лењ, лен, лије̑н
- Roman: lenj (sh), len (sh), lijȇn (sh)
- Slovak: lenivý
- Slovene: lén (sl)
- Sorbian:
- Lower Sorbian: gniły, lěniwy
- Upper Sorbian: lěni
- Spanish: perezoso (es), flojo (es), locho, haragán (es), vago (es)
- Swahili: legevu
- Swedish: lat (sv), slö (sv)
- Tabasaran: темпел (tempel)
- Tachawit: abexnis (shy)
- Tagalog: tamad, batugan, patay-patay
- Tamil: சோம்பல் (ta) (cōmpal)
- Telugu: సోమరి (te) (sōmari), బద్ధకం (baddhakaṁ)
- Thai: เกียจคร้าน (th) (gìiat-kráan), ขี้เกียจ (th) (kîi-gìiat)
- Tibetan: སྒྱིད་ལ་ངན་པོ (sgyid la ngan po)
- Tocharian B: ālase
- Tongan: fakapikopiko
- Turkish: tembel (tr)
- Turkmen: ýalta, temmel
- Ukrainian: ліни́вий (linývyj), леда́чий (ledáčyj)
- Urdu: آلسی (ur) (ālsī)
- Vietnamese: lười biếng (vi), lười (vi)
- Welsh: diog (cy)
- West Flemish: leeg
- Yiddish: פֿױל (foyl)
- Zazaki: tenbel, êmıs
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causing idleness; relaxed or leisurely
eye: squinting because of weak muscles
Verb
lazy (third-person singular simple present lazies, present participle lazying, simple past and past participle lazied)
- (informal) To laze, act in a lazy manner.
1842, George Cruikshank, Omnibus, London: Tilt & Bogue, page 79:“Go to sea,” muttered Mr. Unity Peach. “Work for your living—don’t lazy away your time here!”
1908, O. Henry, “The Memento”, in The Voice of the City, New York: McClure, page 239:That same afternoon we were lazying around in a boat among the water-lilies at the edge of the bay.
Noun
lazy (plural lazies)
- A lazy person.
1874, David Livingstone, chapter 7, in The Last Journals of David Livingstone in Central Africa, from 1865 to his death, volume I, London: John Murray, page 159:The “lazies” of the party seized the opportunity of remaining behind—wandering, as they said, though all the cross paths were marked.
- 1898, Jason E. Hammond, “Work and Reward” in Suggestive Programs for Special Day Exercises, Lansing, Michigan: Department of Public Instruction for District Schools, p. ,
- 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.
- (obsolete) Sloth (animal).
1716, Thomas Browne, edited by Samuel Johnson, Christian Morals, 2nd edition, London: J. Payne, published 1756, pages 49–50:To strenuous minds there is an inquietude in overquietness, and no laboriousness in labour; and to tread a mile after the slow pace of a snail, or the heavy measures of the lazy of Brazilia, were a most tiring pennance, and worse than a race of some furlongs at the Olympicks.
References
Anagrams