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lack

noun
/læk/US

Etymology

From Middle English lack, lakke, lak, from Old English *læc (“deficiency, lack, want”), from Proto-West Germanic *lak, from Proto-Germanic *laką, *lakaz (“slackness”), from Proto-Germanic *lakaz (“limp, slack, loose, low”), related to *lak(k)ōną (“to blame, reproach”), from Proto-Indo-European *lok-néh₂-. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Lak (“lack”), Middle Low German lack, lak (“lack”), Dutch lak (“lack, deficiency, calumny”), Icelandic lakur (“lacking”). Related also to Middle Dutch laken (“to blame, lack”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English carence (“absence, lack”), from Old French carence.

  1. derived from *lok-néh₂-✻
  2. derived from *lakaz✻ — “limp, slack, loose, low”
  3. inherited from *laką✻
  4. inherited from *lak✻
  5. inherited from *læc✻ — “deficiency, lack, want”
  6. inherited from lack

Definitions

  1. A deficiency or need (of something desirable or necessary)

    A deficiency or need (of something desirable or necessary); an absence, want, dearth.

    • […] let his lack of years be no impediment to let him lack a reverend estimation;
    • I went to a shrink, to analyze my dreams. He said it's lack of sex that's bringing me down.

  2. A defect or failing

    A defect or failing; moral or spiritual degeneracy.

    • In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned.

  3. To be without, not to have, to need, to require.

    • My life lacks excitement.
  4. ›+ 5 more definitions

    1. To be short (of or for something).

      • He'll never lack for company while he's got all that money.
      • Hamlet. What hour now? Horatio. I think it lacks of twelve.

    2. To be in want.

      • The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger […]

    3. To see the deficiency in (someone or something)

      To see the deficiency in (someone or something); to find fault with, to malign, reproach.

      • That is Mede þe Mayde quod she · hath noyed me ful oft / And ylakked my lemman.

    4. To be off one's guard.

      • His opps caught him lacking.

    5. Archaic form of lakh.

      • a lack of rupees

The neighborhood

Derived

for lack of, for lack of trying, lackless, lack of sleep, alack, lack-all, lackbrain, lack-grace, lackland, lack-latin, lack-laughter, lack-learning, lack-life, lack-linen, lack-looks, lack-love, lacklustre, lack-mind, lack-pity, lackstock, lackwit

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at lack. 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.

01lack02deficiency03inadequacy04inadequate05adequate06enough07fully

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

7 hops · closes at lack

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