easy

adj
/ˈiː.zi/UK/ˈi.zi/US/ˈiː.zi/

Etymology

From Middle English esy, eesy, partly from Middle English ese (“ease”) + -y, equivalent to ease + -y, and partly from Anglo-Norman eisé from Old French aisié (“eased, at ease, at leisure”), past participle of aisier (“to put at ease”), from aise (“empty space, elbow room, opportunity”), of uncertain origin. See ease. Merged with Middle English ethe, eathe (“easy”), from Old English īeþe, from Proto-Germanic *auþuz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éwtus, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ew- (“to enjoy, consume”). Compare also Old Saxon ōþi, Old High German ōdi, Old Norse auðr, auð-, Icelandic auð (adverb), auð-, all meaning "easy." More at ease, eath.

  1. derived from *h₂ew-
  2. derived from *h₂éwtus
  3. derived from *auþuz
  4. derived from īeþe
  5. derived from ethe
  6. derived from aisié
  7. derived from eisé
  8. derived from ese
  9. derived from esy

Definitions

  1. Comfortable

    Comfortable; at ease.

    • Now that I know it's taken care of, I can rest easy at night.
    • “[…] She takes the whole thing with desperate seriousness. But the others are all easy and jovial—thinking about the good fare that is soon to be eaten, about the hired fly, about anything.”
  2. Requiring little skill or effort.

    • It's often easy to wake up but hard to get up.
    • The teacher gave an easy test to her students.
    • Now the easiest sell in traveldom is made even easier.
  3. Causing ease

    Causing ease; giving comfort, or freedom from care or labour.

    • Rich people live in easy circumstances, that is, the easy life.
    • an easy chair
  4. + 11 more definitions
    1. Free from constraint, harshness, or formality

      Free from constraint, harshness, or formality; unconstrained; smooth.

      • easy manners; an easy style
      • the easy vigour of a line
    2. Consenting readily to sex.

      • She has a reputation for being easy; they say she slept with half the senior class.
    3. Not making resistance or showing unwillingness

      Not making resistance or showing unwillingness; tractable; yielding; compliant.

      • He gain'd their easy hearts.
      • He is[…] too tyrannical to be an easy monarch.
    4. Not straitened as to money matters

      Not straitened as to money matters; opposed to tight.

      • The market is easy.
    5. In a relaxed or casual manner.

      • After his illness, John decided to take it easy.
      • Everything comes easy to her.
    6. In a manner without strictness or harshness

      In a manner without strictness or harshness; gently; softly.

      • Jane went easier on him after he broke his arm.
    7. Handily

      Handily; at the very least.

      • This project will cost 15 million dollars, easy.
    8. Something that is easy.

      • Virtually all of the "easies" are the first watermark and the "toughs" are the second.
      • Run past the nasties, kill the easies.
      • Make the easies a bit tougher by shaping slightly away from the A position.
    9. Synonym of easy-oar.

    10. Requesting deintensification or a halt.

    11. radiotelephony clear-code word for the letter E.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at easy. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01easy02requiring03requirement04necessity05indispensable06cannot07impossibility08impossible09difficult

A definitional loop anchored at easy. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

9 hops · closes at easy

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA