lack
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: 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.
Inflected forms:
form: lacks
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: lacks
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: lacking
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: lacked
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: lacked
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A deficiency or need (of something desirable or necessary); an absence, want, dearth.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: […] let his lack of years be no impediment to let him lack a reverend estimation;
I went to a shrink, to analyze my dreams. He said it's lack of sex that's bringing me down.
If Moldova harboured even the slightest hopes of pulling off a comeback that would have bordered on miraculous given their lack of quality, they were snuffed out 13 minutes before the break when Oxlade-Chamberlain picked his way through midfield before releasing Defoe for a finish that should have been dealt with more convincingly by Namasco at his near post.
More flak was aimed at the Treasury's apparent lack of marketing skills, when it was argued that its idea of how to sell tickets was along the lines of "you can get two tickets for the price of two", and it lacks the sales and promotional skills of the train operating companies which are needed to boost revenue.
gloss: A defect or failing; moral or spiritual degeneracy.
pos: noun
tags: countable
obsolete
uncountable
examples: In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned.
gloss: To be without, not to have, to need, to require.
pos: verb
tags: stative
transitive
examples: My life lacks excitement.
More flak was aimed at the Treasury's apparent lack of marketing skills, when it was argued that its idea of how to sell tickets was along the lines of "you can get two tickets for the price of two", and it lacks the sales and promotional skills of the train operating companies which are needed to boost revenue.
gloss: To be short (of or for something).
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: He'll never lack for company while he's got all that money.
Hamlet. What hour now?
Horatio. I think it lacks of twelve.
gloss: To be in want.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
obsolete
examples: The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger […]
gloss: To see the deficiency in (someone or something); to find fault with, to malign, reproach.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
examples: That is Mede þe Mayde quod she · hath noyed me ful oft / And ylakked my lemman.
gloss: To be off one's guard.
pos: verb
examples: His opps caught him lacking.
Synonyms: dearth
deficiency
deficit
dejection
inadequacy
infrequency
insufficiency
meagerness
nonsufficiency
lack
paucity
penury
rareness
rarity
scantiness
scarcity
shortage
shortcoming
unsufficiency
want
Antonyms: adequacy
excess
Related words: abundant
lackluster
Derived words: for lack of
for lack of trying
lackless
lack of sleep
alack
lack-all
lackbrain
lack-grace
lackland
lack-latin
lack-laughter
lack-learning
lack-life
lack-linen
lack-looks
lack-love
lacklustre
lack-mind
lack-pity
lackstock
lackwit
Translations: