half-assed

[haf-ast, hahf-]

adjective

Slang: Vulgar.

1. insufficient or haphazard; not fully planned or developed.

2. incompetent; lacking sufficient ability or knowledge.

half-assed

adjective

1. incompetent; inept

2. lacking efficiency or organization

Word History and Origins

Origin of half-assed¹

First recorded in 1960–65; half + ass ² + -ed ³

Example Sentences

I have used the title in a naked and half-assed attempt to be clever.

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She adds, “I wouldn’t be able to do this show half-assed.”

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Snap’s Spectacles are truly horrid, like something you’d wear as part of a half-assed Andy Warhol costume on Halloween.

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“Every woman has a right to govern her own body – and no one should ever do anything half-assed.”

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And, just after Harris praised her late mother for teaching her and her sister to “never do anything half-assed,” Trump posted: “Kamala’s biography won’t lower prices at the Grocery Store, or at the Pump!”

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Related Words

• aimless 
• arbitrary 
• careless 
• casual 
• desultory 
• disorganized 
• erratic 
• helter-skelter 
• indiscriminate 
• offhand 
• random 
• slapdash 
• uncoordinated