lazy – English adjective declension

English adjective forms of lazy

Adjective: lazy

Comparison Forms

Synthetic

Comparativelazier
Superlativelaziest

Perifrastic

Sample Sentences

  • Get out of bed, you lazy lout!
  • If there bee any lasie fellow, any that cannot away with worke, any that would wallow in pleasures, hee is hastie to be priested. And when hee is made one, and has gotten a benefice, he consorts with his neighbour priests, who are altogether given to pleasures; and then both hee, and they, live, not like Christians, but like epicures; drinking, eating, feasting, and revelling, till the cow come home, as the saying is. [1610, Alexander Cooke, Pope Joane, in William Oldys, editor, The Harleian Miscellany: or, A Collection of Scarce, Curious, and Entertaining Pamphlets and Tracts, as well in Manuscript as in Print, Found in the Late Earl of Oxford's Library: Interspersed with Historical, Political, and Critical Notes: With a Table of the Contents, and an Alphabetical Index, volume IV, London: Printed for T[homas] Osborne, in Gray's-Inn, 1744, OCLC 5325177; republished as John Maltham, editor, The Harleian Miscellany; or, A Collection of Scarce, Curious, and Entertaining Pamphlets and Tracts, as well in Manuscript as in Print, Found in the Late Earl of Oxford's Library, Interspersed with Historical, Political, and Critical Notes, volume IV, London: Printed for R. Dutton, 1808–1811, OCLC 30776079, page 95]
  • "I'm too lazy," he said. "My wife says I'm the laziest man in all Oz, and she is a truthful woman. I hate work of any kind, and making a raft is hard work." [1913, L. Frank Baum, The Patchwork Girl of Oz, Chicago: The Reilly & Lee Co., published c. 1920, page 308:]
  • I love staying inside and reading on a lazy Sunday.
  • lazy writing
  • So it was this beautiful young woman Rokoff had been persecuting. Tarzan wondered in a lazy sort of way whom she might be, and what relations one so lovely could have with the surly, bearded Russian. [1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 17:]
  • We strolled along beside a lazy stream.
  • a lazy-eared rabbit
  • There was probably more cattle bearing the Lazy S brand marketed than those of any other ranch in the world. [2010, The Trail Drivers of Texas:]
  • The Zuliagas branded a Lazy B. In order to distinguish his cows from theirs for the drive back to Arizona, Mr. Day added a britchen brand across their butts, under their tails. [2002, American Cowboy, volume 9, number 3, page 60:]
  • a lazy algorithm
  • The swilland dropsy enter in
  • The lazy cuke , and swell his skin [1641, Ben Jonson, The Sad Shepherd:]

Adjectives inflected like lazy

syrupy, seemly, seggsy, snuffy, snippy, snitty, sniffy, snotty, snouty, snobby, snoozy, snooty, snazzy, snappy, snarky, snarly, snassy, snaily, snacky, snaggy, etc. (List truncated at 20 adjectives)

Etymology

1. Attested since 1540, origin uncertain. Probably from Low German and Middle Low German lasich (“slack, feeble, lazy”), from las, from Old Saxon lask, from Proto-Germanic *lasiwaz, *laskaz (“feeble, weak”), from Proto-Indo-European *las- (“weak”).
2. Akin to Dutch leuzig (“lazy”), German lässig (“casual, nonchalant, laid-back, easy-going”), Old Norse lasinn (“limpy, tired, weak”), Old English lesu, lysu (“false, evil, base”). More at lush.
3. An alternative etymology traces lazy to Early Modern English laysy, a derivative of lay (plural lays + -y) in the same way that tipsy is derived from tip. See lay. See: German Adjectives 'lässig'.