lazy
Americanadjective
-
lazier,
comparative
-
laziest
superlative
-
tending to avoid work, activity, or exertion.
She was too lazy to take out the trash, so it just continued to pile up.
- Synonyms:
- slothful
- Antonyms:
- industrious
-
causing or characterized by idleness or inactivity.
It was a hot, lazy afternoon.
I’m having a lazy day today, just lounging and watching movies.
-
slow-moving; sluggish.
a lazy stream.
- Antonyms:
- quick
-
Computers. of or relating to an operator or quantifier in a search query that will return the smallest match result possible.
-
(of a livestock brand) placed on its side instead of upright.
verb (used without object)
adjective
-
not inclined to work or exertion
-
conducive to or causing indolence
-
moving in a languid or sluggish manner
a lazy river
-
(of a brand letter or mark on livestock) shown as lying on its side
Synonym Usage
See idle.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of lazy
First recorded in 1540–50; compare Low German lasich “languid, idle”
Explanation
While lazy actually means being averse to work or avoiding it, it can also be used to describe something slow-moving or unenergetic, like when you stroll down the garden path with a lazy gait, not in a hurry to get anywhere. The adjective lazy is thought to come from the Low German lasich, meaning "idle or languid." You were offended at being called lazy, but you just didn't have the energy to defend yourself. After all, who doesn't enjoy a lazy Sunday afternoon? Former President of Poland Lech Walesa once considered the benefits of being lazy when he said, “It's the lazy people who invented the wheel and the bicycle because they didn't like walking or carrying things."
Vocabulary lists containing lazy
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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:
You enjoyed late nights, lazy mornings balancing family fun and you time.
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026
I wrote an entire book about AI, and yet I’ve been too lazy to leverage its full power in my personal life.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
The answer is quite simple: If a hardworking, industrious person notices his lazy, couch-sitting neighbor has the same lifestyle he is enjoying, over time the hard worker will reduce his or her effort.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
If a claim is substantiated, the plagiarist is seen as sloppy or lazy at best, and fundamentally dishonest at worst.
From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026
I flushed the toilet a second time, and the big turd spun a lazy circle.
From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris
We label those who outsource their work to AI as lazier and less moral, and we think they value their work less than those who don’t.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
A 2025 Duke University study found that professionals believed that colleagues would consider them lazier and less competent if they used A.I., making them unlikely to disclose its use.
From Slate ● Aug. 20, 2025
While each cameo is lazier than the last, it’s a substantial supporting role from Benny Safdie — who, alongside his brother Josh, co-directed Sandler in “Uncut Gems” — that’s most grating.
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2025
Use her ajvar recipe without adjustment, or opt for my lazier route, and stash containers of lutenitsa in the freezer.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 8, 2023
“I can’t tell who is lazier, Polly or you,” Mother mut-tered as she stalked out of the room.
From "Fever 1793" by Laurie Halse Anderson
While charging a $1 annual fee may discourage the laziest bot-makers, it surely won’t prevent anyone with a real incentive—financial, political, or otherwise—to manipulate the platform for their own personal gain.
From Slate ● Oct. 19, 2023
If he loses, they say he overthinks, the laziest word ever to be used about Guardiola's work.
From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2023
Adding co-op is like finishing any dish with chili oil — it’s the laziest way to make the most unimaginatively cooked proteins pretty tasty.
From The Verge ● Aug. 24, 2022
She and the news crews are all playing the same game, in the laziest and most inane manner possible.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 1, 2021
Whenever Dad started to do a new motion study project at a factory, he’d always begin by announcing he wanted to photograph the motions of the laziest man on the job.
From "Cheaper by the Dozen" by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
The New York Stock Exchange tape lazied along: about 120,000 shares an hour, 610,000 shares for the full session.
From Time Magazine Archive
So he lazied with geishas, saki, talk and chess.
From Time Magazine Archive
I was in the merriest humour, and lazied about the whole afternoon through the most frequented streets and looked at the people.
From Hunger by Knut Hamsun
So we lazied the fine days away, while our sea harness lay stiffening in the dark lockers.
From The Brassbounder A Tale of the Sea by David W. Bone
We lazied the rest of the pleasant afternoon away, some dozing under the trees, some smoking cob-pipes and talking sweethearts and war, some playing games.
From The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories by Mark Twain
Hot summer weekends he is apt to be lazying beside Marian Anderson's Connecticut swimming pool.
From Time Magazine Archive
I came home to see you all, Betty, and to satisfy myself that you were well; when that’s done there’s no more excuse for lazying.
From Betty Trevor by Victor Prout
Therefore there is plenty of room for reposeful lazying and lounging, and for exercise too, for such as like that kind of work.
From Following the Equator, Part 2 by Mark Twain
His head felt heavy and kind of funny, but he didn't think that lazying around on the pier would be harmful.
From A Son of the City A Story of Boy Life by Herman Gastrell Seely
But he soon sank away to sleep, from which he did not awaken until the half angry voice of Mrs. Sharp chided him loudly for "lazying it away" in bed until after sunrise.
From Lizzy Glenn or, The Trials of a Seamstress by T. S. (Timothy Shay) Arthur
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.
