▪ I. lazy, a. and n.
(ˈleɪzɪ)
Forms: 6–7 laysy, -ie, lasie, -y, lazie, (6 laesie, -y, lasey, leasie), 7– lazy.
[Of obscure etymology.
The earliest quoted form laysy would favour the derivation from lay v. with suffix as in tipsy, tricksy, etc.; but the spelling is not quite early enough to have etymological significance. If the word be of early origin, and esp. if the alleged dialectal sense ‘naught, bad’, be genuine, there may possibly be connexion with ON. lasenn dilapidated, las-m{obar}yrr decrepit, fragile, mod.Icel. las-furða ailing, las-leiki ailment. Prof. Skeat suspects adoption from Du. or LG., and refers to MLG. lasich, losich, mod.LG. läösig (Danneil), early mod.Du. leuzig.]
A. adj.
1. a. Of persons (also of animals), their disposition, etc.: Averse to labour, indisposed to action or effort; idle; inactive, slothful.
| 1549 Bale Labor Journ. Leland Pref. A vij b, Those laysy lubbers and popyshe bellygoddes. 1567 Triall Treas. A iv, Your lasy bones I pretende so to blisse, That you shall haue small luste to prate any more. 1578 T. N. tr. Conq. W. Indies 191 If they were found to be lazie and slouthfull they should be used accordingly. 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. Feb. 9 Lewdly complainest thou laesie ladde, Of Winter's wracke, for making thee sadde. 1590 ― F.Q. i. iv. 36 Sathan..forward lasht the laesy teme. 1628 Prynne Cens. Cozens 77 Who gratifie their owne lasie dispositions. a 1658 Cleveland Wks. (1687) 508 These lazie tender-hearted Clowns. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 242 All, with united Force, combine to drive The lazy Drones from the laborious Hive. a 1770 Jortin Serm. (1771) I. i. 13 It is a lazy modesty to resign the reason God has conferred upon us. 1807 Crabbe Par. Reg. iii. 143 The lazy vagrants in her presence shook. 1878 Jevons Prim. Pol. Econ. 80 He must not be very lazy..for fear of being discharged. |
b. transf. Applied to things, places, or conditions, favourable or appropriate to laziness.
| 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. i. iii. 147 With him Patroclus Vpon a lazie Bed the liuelong day Breakes scurrill Iests. 1669 Dryden Tyrannic Love i. i, Two tame gown'd princes, who at ease debate, In lazy chairs, the business of the state. 1670 ― 2nd Pt. Conq. Granada iii. iii, Love, like a lazy ague, I endure. 1680 Otway Orphan i. i, They cry they're weary of their lazy home. 1721 Ramsay Morning Interview 87 The nymph, new-wak'd, starts from the lazy down. 1840 Dickens Old C. Shop iv, The room is a cool, shady, lazy kind of place. 1851 Longfellow Gold. Leg. iv. Road to Hirschau, The great dog..Hangs his head in the lazy heat. |
2. a. Of things: Sluggish, dull, slow-moving; now only
transf. from sense 1.
† Formerly of literary style, and, in physical sense, of heat or chemical agents: Languid, having little energy.
| a 1568 R. Ascham Scholem. ii. (Arb.) 100 Melancthon..came to this low kinde of writing, by vsing ouer moch Paraphrasis in reading: For studying therbie to make euerie thing streight and easie, in smothing and playning all things to much, neuer leaueth, whiles the sence it selfe be left, both lowse and lasie. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. v. i. 41 How shall we beguile The lazie time, if not with some delight? 1592 Arden of Faversham E i b, The laysie minuts linger on their time. a 1628 F. Grevil Alaham 3rd Chorus 35 A lasy calme, wherein each foole a pilot is. ? 1630 Milton Time 2 Lazy leaden-stepping Hours. 1668 Culpepper & Cole Barthol. Anat. i. xx. 53 The condition of Spirituous blood, forcibly issuing forth, and of a dull and lazie urin are different. 1693 Dryden Ovid's Met. i. 362 With rain his robe and heavy mantle flow, And lazy mists are low'ring on his brow. 1734 Phil. Trans. XXXVIII. 298 There is a great deal more of this Substance of the Lazy or Inactive, than of the Active or Magnetick sort. 1764 Goldsm. Trav. 2 Or by the lazy Scheld, or wandering Po. 1799 Coleridge Lines comp. in Concert-room 26 The lazy boat sways to and fro. 1885 R. Bridges Eros & Psyche, May 4 The sun..Sifting his gold through lazy mists. |
b. Applied to an eye with poor vision which is consequently little used and tends to deteriorate further;
esp. the unused eye in squint.
| 1939 R. B. Simpkins Basic Mech. Human Vision v. 62 Both exophoric and esophoric conditions are probably the most frequent causes of the development of a lazy eye. 1957 [see heterophoria (hetero-)]. 1971 E. Rudinger Eyes Right 42 Up to the age of 5 years there is a fair chance of success by encouraging the child to use the lazy eye. |
† 3. dial. Bad, worthless.
Obs.—0| 1671 Skinner Etymol. Ling. Angl., Lazy, in agro Linc. usurpatur pro Malus,..Pravus, Perversus. 1674 Ray N.C. Words 29 Lazy, Naught, bad. 1787 in Grose Prov. Gloss. |
4. Comb., as
lazy-boned,
lazy-minded,
lazy-paced,
lazy-puffing adjs.;
lazy arm, a type of boom from which a microphone may be slung;
lazy-board (
U.S.), a short board on the left side of a waggon, used by teamsters to ride on (
Cent. Dict.);
lazy-boots colloq. = lazy-bones;
lazy-cock (
U.S.), ‘a cock controlling the pipe between the feed-pump of a locomotive and the hose from the tank of the tender’ (Funk);
lazy daisy (stitch), a petal-shaped embroidery stitch;
lazy dog U.S. Mil. slang, a type of fragmentation bomb designed to explode in mid-air and scatter steel pellets at high velocity over the target area;
† lazy-gut, a glutton;
lazy-guy Naut. (see
guy n.1 2);
lazy-jack, ‘a lifting device of compounded levers on the principle of the lazy-tongs’ (Knight
Dict. Mech. 1875);
lazy-legs = lazy-bones;
lazy-painter, ‘a small temporary rope to hold a boat in fine weather’ (Smyth
Sailor's Word-bk. 1867);
lazy-pinion, a pinion serving as a transmitter of motion between two other pinions or wheels (
Cent. Dict.);
lazy scissors = lazy-tongs;
Lazy Susan,
lazy susan orig. U.S., a revolving (wooden) stand on a table to hold condiments, etc.; a muffin stand.
| 1960 O. Skilbeck ABC of Film & TV 76 *Lazy arm, a small, hand-held microphone Boom. 1962 A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio 257 Lazy arm, simple form of boom consisting of an upright and a balanced cross⁓member from which a microphone may be slung. |
| 1875 A. R. Hope My Schoolboy Fr. 148 One or two *lazy-boned fellows worked in bed. |
| 1831 Lytton Eug. Aram i. ii, Why don't you rise, Mr. *Lazy-boots? Where are your eyes? Don't you see the young ladies? 1863 Mrs. Gaskell Sylvia's L. xxxv, Nancy..is gone to bed this hour past, like a lazy boots as she is. |
| 1923 Daily Mail 10 Mar. 14 The way the ‘*lazy-daisy’ stitch is worked is shown at the side of the sketch. 1948 J. Cannan Little I Understood x. 133 Mildred completed six lazy daisies. 1963 N. Marsh Dead Water (1964) viii. 221 A rumpled nightgown embroidered with lazy daisies. 1965 Times 23 Mar. 12/7 Asked why something more deadly was not preferred—when such things as napalm and white phosphorus incendiary bombs and ‘*lazy dog’ fragmentation bombs are frequently in use— the spokesmen said the gas was being used in situations where the Vietcong might be holding hostages. 1967 N.Y. Times 13 Jan. 8 The Lazy Dog is an advanced antipersonnel weapon introduced last spring. 1968 Punch 21 Feb. 258 Tomorrow, we'll get three divisions in here, four, we'll get two hundred B-52s, we'll get ground-to-grounds, and whole batteries of Lazy Dogs. |
| 1631 Celestina ix. 105 This same *lazy-gut was the cause..of all this stay. |
| 1838 Dickens O. Twist xxi, Don't lag behind already, *Lazy-legs! |
| 1879 C. M. Yonge Burnt Out xii. 192 George..had been getting more *lazy-minded and stupid. 1929 V. Woolf Granite & Rainbow (1958) 105 This lazy-minded man was quite capable..of filling a chapter or two..from a fountain of empty, journalistic phrases. |
| 1591 Sylvester Du Bartas i. vi. 106 The *lazy-paced (yet laborious) Asse. |
| 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. ii. ii. 31 When he bestrides the *lazie puffing Cloudes. 1836 *Lazy scissors [see lazy-tongs]. |
| 1917 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) Dec. 17 (Advt.), Revolving Server or *Lazy Susan. 1966 B. Askwith Step out of Time ii. 35 The home⁓made jam on the Lazy Susan in the middle of the table. 1971 Sunday Australian 8 Aug. 10/1 The best china is used. Silver pots of steaming tea and coffee spin round with wheels of gateaux on a massive lazy susan. |
† B. n. Used as a name for the
sloth.
Obs.| 1682 Sir T. Browne Chr. Mor. i. §33 To tread a mile after..the heavy measures of the Lazy of Brazilia, were a most tiring Pennance. |
Hence
ˈlazyhood, laziness.
ˈlazyish a., somewhat lazy.
| 1866 B. W. Procter Mem. Lamb 184 The imbecile, or those brought up in complete lazyhood. 1892 Argosy Jan. 42, I have six long, delicious weeks of lazyhood before me. 1892 Spectator 17 Dec. 878/2 The lazyish, slightly slatternly poor. |
Add:
[4.] lazy eight, an aerobatic manoeuvre in which an aircraft executes an S-shaped path which, when viewed laterally, resembles a figure 8 lying on its side.
| 1930 R. Duncan Stunt Flying 138 *Lazy 8's. 1943 D. J. Brimm Air Acrobatics are Easy iii. 66 There should be no approach to a stall in the lazy eight, and in the recovery or second half of the loop there is much less of the diving turn than in the recovery from the wingover. 1986 New Yorker 26 May 51/3 The instructor..taught him more advanced maneuvers—chandelles,..and lazy-eights. |
lazy eye (
a) (see sense 2 b above); (
b) the condition of having a lazy eye, amblyopia.
| 1960 D. Vaughan et al. Gen. Ophthalm. (ed. 2) xxi. 333 (heading) Amblyopia ex anopsia (*lazy eye). 1975 H. Jolly Bk. Child Care xxxiv. 432 Because squint can be so dangerous I dislike the expression ‘lazy eye’ which is commonly used to describe it. 1987 Oxford Times 15 May 2/4 His work is essential for the treatment of Amblyopia—commonly known as lazy eye—which affects more than one in 20 of the population. |
lazy-jack, (
b)
Naut., each of several light ropes on either side of a sail, placed so as to allow it to be gathered in easily.
| 1901 T. F. Day On Yachts 167 *Lazy jacks are useful on cruising boats, especially if you are sailing short-handed, but they are a nuisance when reefing. 1984 Practical Boat Owner Feb. 42/3 Notably efficient are the lazy jacks, which not only hold the boom steady on the moorings, but catch the sail and gaff—when you lower peak and throat halyards—as it slides down the mast. 1994 Canad. Yachting Summer 20/1 Full-length battens are helpful if you intend to instal lazy jacks. |
▪ II. lazy, v. (
ˈleɪzɪ)
[f. lazy a.] 1. intr. = laze v. 1.
| 1612 Sylvester Tropheis 90 Nor waits he lazying on his bed for day. 1694 R. L'Estrange Fables 50 They knew no reason..why the One should lye lazying and pampering itself with the fruit of the Other's labour. 1765 H. Timberlake Mem. 76 Hunting, and warring abroad, and lazying at home. 1876 Besant & Rice Gold. Butterfly III. 81 He..lazied under the hanging willows by the shore. 1890 Mrs. Laffan Louis Draycott I. ii. ii. 146 A snug retreat, indeed, to read, or think, or ‘lazy’ in. |
2. quasi-trans. = laze v. 2.
| 1885 Century Mag. XXXI. 197 We lazied the rest of the pleasant afternoon away. 1892 Tennyson St. Telemachus 21 Wake Thou deedless dreamer, lazying out a life Of self-suppression, not of selfless love. |