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Webster 1913 Edition


Lack

Lack

(lăk)
,
Noun.
[OE.
lak
; cf. D.
lak
slander,
laken
to blame, OHG.
lahan
, AS.
leán
.]
1.
Blame; cause of blame; fault; crime; offense.
[Obs.]
Chaucer.
2.
Deficiency; want; need; destitution; failure;
as, a
lack
of sufficient food
.
She swooneth now and now for
lakke
of blood.
Chaucer.
Let his
lack
of years be no impediment.
Shakespeare

Lack

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Lacked
(lăkt)
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Lacking
.]
1.
To blame; to find fault with.
[Obs.]
Love them and
lakke
them not.
Piers Plowman.
2.
To be without or destitute of; to want; to need.
If any of you
lack
wisdom, let him ask of God.
James i. 5.

Lack

,
Verb.
I.
1.
To be wanting; often, impersonally, with
of
, meaning, to be less than, short, not quite, etc.
What hour now?
I think it
lacks
of twelve.
Shakespeare
Peradventure there shall
lack
five of the fifty.
Gen. xvii. 28.
2.
To be in want.
The young lions do
lack
, and suffer hunger.
Ps. xxxiv. 10.

Lack

,
int
erj.
[Cf.
Alack
.]
Exclamation of regret or surprise.
[Prov. Eng.]
Cowper.

Webster 1828 Edition


Lack

LACK

,
Verb.
T.
[L. deliquium, which seems to be connected with linquo, to leave, to faint, and with liquo, to melt, liquid, &c.]
1.
To want; to be destitute of; not to have or possess.
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask it of God - James 1.
2.
To blame. [Not in use.]

LACK

,
Verb.
I.
1.
To be in want.
The young lions do lack and suffer hunger. Ps. 34.
2.
To be wanting.
Perhaps there shall lack five of the fifty righteous.
Gen. 18.

LACK

,
Noun.
Want; destitution; need; failure.
He that gathered little, had no lack. Ex. 14.
Lack of rupees is one hundred thousand rupees, which at 55 cents each, amount to fifty five thousand dollars, or at 2s. 6d. sterling, to 12,500 pounds.

Definition 2024


Lack

Lack

See also: lack and läck

German

Noun

Lack m (genitive Lackes or Lacks, plural Lacke)

  1. varnish

Declension

Related terms


Luxembourgish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /lɑk/
  • Rhymes: -ɑk

Noun

Lack m (plural Lacker)

  1. lacquer, varnish

Derived terms

  • Hoerlack

lack

lack

See also: Lack and läck

English

Noun

lack (plural lacks)

  1. (obsolete) A defect or failing; moral or spiritual degeneracy.
    • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 1, in The Celebrity:
      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.
  2. A deficiency or need (of something desirable or necessary); an absence, want.
    • Shakespeare
      Let his lack of years be no impediment.
    • 1994, Green Day, Basket Case
      I went to a shrink, to analyze my dreams. He said it's lack of sex that's bringing me down.
    • 2012 September 7, Phil McNulty, Moldova 0-5 England”, in BBC Sport:
      If Moldova harboured even the slightest hopes of pulling off a comeback that would have bordered on miraculous given their lack of quality, they were snuffed out 13 minutes before the break when Oxlade-Chamberlain picked his way through midfield before releasing Defoe for a finish that should have been dealt with more convincingly by Namasco at his near post.

Antonyms

Translations

Verb

lack (third-person singular simple present lacks, present participle lacking, simple past and past participle lacked)

  1. (transitive) To be without, to need, to require.
    My life lacks excitement.
  2. (intransitive) To be short (of or for something).
    He'll never lack for company while he's got all that money.
    • Shakespeare
      What hour now? I think it lacks of twelve.
  3. (intransitive) To be in want.
    • Bible, Psalms xxxiv. 10
      The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger.
  4. (obsolete) To see the ‘lack’ in (someone or something); to find fault with, to malign, reproach.
    • c. 1385, William Langland, Piers Plowman, II:
      That is Mede þe Mayde quod she · hath noyed me ful oft / And ylakked my lemman.

Translations

Related terms

Anagrams


Swedish

Noun

lack n

  1. lacquer

Declension

Inflection of lack 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative lack lacket lacker lackerna
Genitive lacks lackets lackers lackernas

Related terms