lack
//læk//
Forms
- Plural
- lacks
- present (v1)
- lack
- past (v2)
- lacked
- past participle (v3)
- lacked
- present participle
- lacking
- 3rd person singular
- lacks
Definitions
1.A deficiency or need (of something desirable or necessary); an absence, want, dearth.
- I went to a shrink, to analyze my dreams. He said it's lack of sex that's bringing me down.
1.To be without, not to have, to need, to require.
2.To be short (of or for something).
- He'll never lack for company while he's got all that money.
3.To be off one's guard.
- His opps caught him lacking.
Frequency
Overall
Common· #1227
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Common
- Academic
- Uncommon
- Literature
- Rare
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”).