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:
His doggedness would be almost admirable, if “We Will Dance Again” wasn’t so lazy.
From Salon ● Aug. 6, 2026
During a talk on the subject, she told him it would be lazy and unromantic of him to treat their conversations as another task to be ‘hacked’ with AI.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
The 3.6-acre estate features a wading pool and an infinity pool that are connected by a lazy river.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 20, 2026
The case for a lazy Sunday: Got weekend plans?
From Slate ● Jul. 10, 2026
Why it’s better to think yourself lazy than think yourself in distress, I’m not sure.
From "Educated" by Tara Westover
What concerns him isn’t the tool itself so much as what it could let a lazier version of himself get away with.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
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
A lazier filmmaker might merely have put them back together to play their greatest hits.
From New York Times ● Jul. 7, 2023
A lazier tale may have resolved this by having Stark Industries dump an angel loan upon the family from nowhere.
From Salon ● Apr. 17, 2021
Her companions were the lazier of the Old Sarum boys, the laziest of whom was one Albert Coningham, a slow thinker to whom Jean Louise had rendered invaluable service during six-weeks’ tests.
From "Go Set a Watchman: A Novel" by Harper Lee
“Everybody’s used to seeing grizzlies on TV catching salmon out of the air at the top of some waterfall, but black bears are one of the laziest animals on the planet,” he explains.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 19, 2025
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
“You mean the laziest dude in seventh grade?” said Kojo.
From "The Smartest Kid in the Universe" by Chris Grabenstein
So he lazied with geishas, saki, talk and chess.
From Time Magazine Archive
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
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
I never lazied around so or frittered up so much time in my life; and I'm enjoying every second of my freedom, too.
From The Early Bird A Business Man's Love Story by Arthur William Brown
The two went down the road together, the Paymaster a little wearied with his years and weight or lazied by his own drams, leaning in the least degree upon the shoulder of the boy.
From Gilian The Dreamer His Fancy, His Love and Adventure by Neil Munro
Hot summer weekends he is apt to be lazying beside Marian Anderson's Connecticut swimming pool.
From Time Magazine Archive
A light breeze, lazying over the plain, stirred the fronded tufts of the date-palms' thick plantations.
From The Flying Legion by George Allan England
"And see what I've made thee while thou'st been lazying in bed—a real English ship of war."
From Harding's luck by H. R. (Harold Robert) Millar
That was it, the whole field, unkept, idle, lazying, was thoughtless of the future.
From Stubble by George Looms
Creagh sprang to his feet from the chair in which he had been lazying.
From A Daughter of Raasay A Tale of the '45 by Stuart Travis
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.
