lazy

Attested since 1540, origin uncertain. Probably from Low German and Middle Low German lasich (“slack, feeble, lazy”), from las, from Old Saxon lask, 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.

• IPA^(key): /ˈleɪzi/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪzi

lazy (comparative lazier, superlative laziest)

1. 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."

2. Causing or characterised by idleness; relaxed or leisurely.

   I love staying inside and reading on a lazy Sunday.

3. Showing a lack of effort or care.

   lazy writing

   • 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 17:

     So it was this beautiful young woman Rokoff had been persecuting. Tarzan wondered in a lazy sort of way whom she might be, and what relations one so lovely could have with the surly, bearded Russian.

4. Sluggish; slow-moving.

   We strolled along beside a lazy stream.

5. Lax:
   1. Droopy.

      a lazy-eared rabbit

   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

   • 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.

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

   a lazy algorithm

8. (UK, obsolete or dialect) Wicked; vicious.
   • 1641, Ben Jonson, The Sad Shepherd:

     The swilland dropsy enter in
     The lazy cuke , and swell his skin

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

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.
   • 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!”

   • 1884 December 10, Mark Twain , “Chapter 21”, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) , London: Chatto & Windus, , →OCLC:

     You’d see a muddy sow and a litter of pigs come lazying along the street and whollop herself right down in the way, where folks had to walk around her

   • 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.

lazy (plural lazies)

1. 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.

   • 2016 May 11, Marta Bausells, Eleni Stefanou, “Meet the Greek writers revolutionising poetry in the age of austerity”, in The Guardian:

     Which myth of the Greek crisis would you like to debunk? — That the Greeks are a nation of lazies on a permanent vacation; that austerity measures, as they were implemented, were proportionally distributed or worth the sacrifice.

2. (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.

• Zyla