lack

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /læk/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Homophone: lakh (one pronunciation)
• Rhymes: -æk

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.

lack (countable and uncountable, plural lacks)

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

   Antonyms: glut, surplus

   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

     […] let his lack of years be no impediment to let him lack a reverend estimation;

   • 1994, Green Day (lyrics and music), “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.

   • 2022 January 12, Tom Allett, “Network News: MPs concerned at Treasury's influence on rail industry”, in RAIL, number 948, page 13:

     More flak was aimed at the Treasury's apparent lack of marketing skills, when it was argued that its idea of how to sell tickets was along the lines of "you can get two tickets for the price of two", and it lacks the sales and promotional skills of the train operating companies which are needed to boost revenue.

2. (obsolete) A defect or failing; moral or spiritual degeneracy.
   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     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.

From Middle English lacken, lakken, laken, from Old English læccian, *lacian (“to blame, criticise, lack”), from Proto-West Germanic *lak(k)ōn (“to blame, be lacking”), from Proto-Germanic *lak(k)ōną (“to reproach, blame, be lacking”), from Proto-Indo-European *lok-néh₂-. Cognate with Old Frisian lakia, lekia (“to contest, blame”), Middle Low German lacken, laken (“to reproach, blame, criticise”), Middle Dutch laken (“to disapprove, blame, lack”), Dutch laken (“to blame, reproach”).

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

1. (transitive, stative) To be without, not to have, to need, to require.

   My life lacks excitement.

   • 2022 January 12, Tom Allett, “Network News: MPs concerned at Treasury's influence on rail industry”, in RAIL, number 948, page 13:

     More flak was aimed at the Treasury's apparent lack of marketing skills, when it was argued that its idea of how to sell tickets was along the lines of "you can get two tickets for the price of two", and it lacks the sales and promotional skills of the train operating companies which are needed to boost revenue.

2. (intransitive) To be short (of or for something).

   He'll never lack for company while he's got all that money.

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:

     Hamlet. What hour now?
     Horatio. I think it lacks of twelve.

3. (intransitive, obsolete) To be in want.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 34:10:

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

4. (obsolete) To see the deficiency in (someone or something); to find fault with, to malign, reproach.
   • c. 1370–1390, [William Langland], “[Passus II]”, in The Vision of Pierce Plowman [...], London: […] Roberte Crowley, […], published 1550, →OCLC:

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

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• lackluster

lack (plural lacks)

1. Archaic form of lakh.

   a lack of rupees

• Guus Kroonen (2013) “lak(k)on-”, in Alexander Lubotsky, editor, Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11)‎^[1], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 325

• good lack

• calk, kcal

• Audio:

  (file)

lack

1. imperative singular of lacken
2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of lacken

From French lacre (“sealing wax”), from Portuguese laca.

lack n

1. varnish, lacquer
   • 1980, “Sommarnatt [Summer night]”, in Lars "Dille" Diedricson, Torben Ferm (music), Sommarnatt‎^[2], performed by Snowstorm:

     Rosa lack och kromad list i '59 års modell. Jag öser på för fullt i stan som en 50-talsrebell. Jag sveper över landsvägar, ja, jag sveper genom natten. Och tar det coolt till Clarions sound, med en säker hand på ratten.

     Pink lacquer and chrome trim [chromed strip] of model year '59. I go full out / step on it [ösa = do something (implied from context) in a fast or intense manner] in the city like a 50s rebel. I sweep across roads [main road, usually smaller than a highway], yes, I sweep through the night. And take it cool to Clarion's sound, with a steady hand on the wheel.

• klarlack
• lacknafta
• lackskor
• nagellack

• lackera

lack (comparative mer lack, superlative mest lack)

1. (colloquial) angry

   Jag blir lack på honom

   I get angry at him

• lakk

• lack in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• lack in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• lack in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)