laze
Americanverb (used without object)
-
lazes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
lazed,
past participle, past
-
lazing
present participle
verb (used with object)
-
lazes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
lazed,
past participle, past
-
lazing
present participle
noun
verb
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(intr) to be indolent or lazy
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to spend (time) in indolence
noun
Synonym Usage
See lounge.
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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lazesimple
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lazessimple
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have lazedperfect
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has lazedperfect
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am lazingprogressive
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are lazingprogressive
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is lazingprogressive
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have been lazingperfect progressive
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has been lazingperfect progressive
Past
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lazedsimple
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had lazedperfect
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was lazingprogressive
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were lazingprogressive
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had been lazingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of laze
First recorded in 1585–95; back formation from lazy
Explanation
To laze is to be very relaxed. On a hot summer weekend morning, you might want to laze on the beach or in a hammock with a book. When you laze, you lounge around, not working or really doing much of anything: you're being luxuriously lazy. If your friend asks what you plan to do during a school holiday, you might reply, "I'm just going to laze around all week." Laze came from lazy, originally laysy, and meaning "averse to work." Its origin is a mystery, though some experts think it's related to lay.
Vocabulary lists containing laze
James and the Giant Peach
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"A Village After Dark" by Kazuo Ishiguro
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"Be-ers and Doers" and "My Moment of Truth"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Now 16, Pebbles does not tend to go after the wildlife so much, preferring to laze around campus waiting to be fed by staff.
From BBC ● Mar. 5, 2024
The unsinkable otters laze buoyant on their backs in the pounding white water, and the seabirds hover and settle gently on the point of a rock in the gale, balancing on thin bare legs.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 20, 2023
She said coyotes have been known to laze in the sun on the local golf course, watching players putt.
From New York Times ● Dec. 31, 2022
Oversimplification of achievements in artificial intelligence evoke scenarios familiar from science fiction: Futurescapes in which machines take over the world, reducing humans to enslaved drones, or leaving them with nothing to do but laze around.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2022
In the meantime, it was extremely pleasant to laze in Mrs. Horsepool-Worthingham’s kitchen after a vigorous day’s work.
From "The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm" by Nancy Farmer
He peeks down from behind half-moon spectacles in one shot, strums a guitar in the next and lazes alongside an illustrated frog in a field of flowers and mushrooms in another.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 7, 2022
The trail ends unceremoniously at an asphalt road, across which the Colorado River lazes by, along the path of least resistance, unbothered by whatever obstacles rise in its path.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 4, 2021
She works long hours, parties or lazes in her down time, and tries not to think about her mother's recent death.
From Salon ● Jul. 13, 2021
He sleeps in the bathtub and lazes about.
From The New Yorker ● Jun. 21, 2018
A minute later, he lazes across the classroom in his robe toward the door—he moves like glue.
From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson
A seal or two lazed at a distance — perhaps already full?
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 18, 2023
Rushees lazed about, trying their best to appear nonchalant and indifferent to the outcome of their social futures.
From Salon ● Jun. 3, 2023
Inside the dugout, as the Phillies and Baltimore Orioles lazed through a forgettable Grapefruit League affair, Phillies manager Gabe Kapler kept hearing from a quartet of fans behind him.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 28, 2019
On Thursday, as the surf crashed and gulls wheeled nearby, dozens of the beach’s newest inhabitants lazed in the sun, filling the air with purrs and honks, barks and grunts.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 2, 2019
Up on top the air smelled less like grease and sugar, more like just-baled hay and the muddy waters of the Yellowstone as it lazed its way around the fairgrounds.
From "The Miseducation of Cameron Post" by emily m. danforth
Despite the government's warnings, the mood appeared relaxed on Tel Aviv's seafront, with bronzed bodies lazing under beach umbrellas.
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2024
Hill highlights that this trend isn't just about lazing around but instead serves as a means to normalize the importance of rest in our lives.
From Salon ● Nov. 15, 2023
Sitting to the road’s south like a lazing lion is Beacon Rock, a former volcano and now the second-largest monolith in the northern hemisphere.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 26, 2023
Inside the book is ample photographic evidence — laughing uproariously with Sir Paul; sharing a tiny table with Jackie O.; fishing with Mick; lazing on a couch with Yoko.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2022
When at last he reached the bottom, a narrow, muddy trail along the water's edge, Littlefinger was lazing against a rock and eating an apple.
From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
