Forms: 6–7 laysy, -ie, lasie, -y, lazie, (6 laesie, -y, lasey, leasie), 7– lazy. [Of obscure etymology.
The earliest quoted form laysy would favor the derivation from LAY v. with suffix as in tipsy, tricksy, etc.; but the spelling is not quite early enough to have etymological significance. If the word be of early origin, and esp. if the alleged dialectal sense ‘naught, bad,’ be genuine, there may possibly be connection with ON. lasenn dilapidated, las-møyrr decrepit, fragile, mod. Icel. las-furða ailing, las-leiki ailment. Prof. Skeat suspects adoption from Du. or LG., and refers to MLG. lasich, losich, mod.LG. lāōsig (Danneil), early mod.Du. leuzig.]
A. adj.
1. Of persons (also of animals), their disposition, etc.: Averse to labor, indisposed to action or effort; idle; inactive, slothful.
1549. Bale, Labor Journ. Leland, Pref. A vij b. Those laysy lubbers and popyshe bellygoddes.
1567. Triall Treas., A iv. Your lasy bones I pretende so to blisse, That you shall haue small luste to prate any more.
1578. T. N., trans. Conq. W. India, 191. If they were found to be lazie and slouthfull they should be used accordingly.
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., Feb., 9. Lewdly complainest thou laesie ladde, Of Winter’s wracke, for making thee sadde. Ibid. (1590), F. Q., I. iv. 36. Sathan … forward lasht the laesy teme.
1628. Prynne, Cens. Cozens, 77. Who gratifie their owne lasie dispositions.
a. 1658. Cleveland, Wks. (1687), 508. These lazie tender-hearted Clowns.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 242. All, with united Force, combine to drive The lazy Drones from the laborious Hive.
a. 1770. Jortin, Serm. (1771), I. i. 13. It is a lazy modesty to resign the reason God has conferred upon us.
1807. Crabbe, Par. Reg., III. 143. The lazy vagrants in her presence shook.
1878. Jevons, Prim. Pol. Econ., 80. He must not be very lazy … for fear of being discharged.
b. transf. Applied to things, places, or conditions, favorable or appropriate to laziness.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. iii. 147. With him Patroclus Vpon a lazie Bed the liuelong day Breakes scurrill Iests.
1669. Dryden, Tyrannic Love, I. i. Two tame gown’d princes, who at ease debate, In lazy chairs, the business of the state. Ibid. (1670), 2nd Pt. Conq. Granada, III. iii. Love, like a lazy ague, I endure.
1680. Otway, Orphan, I. i. They cry they’re weary of their lazy home.
1721. Ramsay, Morning Interview, 87. The nymph, new-wak’d, starts from the lazy down.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, iv. The room is a cool, shady, lazy kind of place.
1851. Longf., Gold. Leg., IV. Road to Hirschau. The great dog … Hangs his head in the lazy heat.
2. Of things: Sluggish, dull, slow-moving; now only transf. from sense 1. † Formerly of literary style, and, in physical sense, of heat or chemical agents: Languid, having little energy.
a. 1568. Ascham, Scholem., II. (Arb.), 100. Melancthon … came to this low kinde of writing, by vsing ouer moch Paraphrasis in reading: For studying therbie to make euerie thing streight and easie, in smothing and playning all things to much, neuer leaueth, while the sence it selfe be left, both lowse and lasie.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., V. i. 41. How shall we beguile The lazie time, if not with some delight?
1592. Arden of Feversham, E i b. The laysie minuts linger on their time.
a. 1628. F. Grevil, Alaham, 3rd Chorus 35. A lasy calme, wherein each foole a pilot is.
1630[?]. Milton, Time, 2. Lazy leaden-stepping Hours.
1668. Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., I. xx. 53. The condition of Spirituous blood, forcibly issuing forth, and of a dull and lazie urin are different.
1693. Dryden, Ovid’s Met., I. 362. With rain his robe and heavy mantle flow, And lazy mists are low’ring on his brow.
1734. Phil. Trans., XXXVIII. 298. There is a great deal more of this Substance of the Lazy or Inactive, than of the Active or Magnetick sort.
1764. Goldsm., Trav., 2. Or by the lazy Scheld, or wandering Po.
1799. Coleridge, Lines comp. in Concert-room, 26. The lazy boat sways to and fro.
1885. R. Bridges, Eros & Psyche, May, 4. The sun … Sifting his gold through lazy mists.
† 3. dial. Bad, worthless. Obs.–0
1671. Skinner, Etymol. Ling. Angl., Lazy, in agro Linc. usurpatur pro Malus,… Pravus, Perversus.
1674. Ray, N. C. Words, 29. Lazy, Naught, bad.
1787. in Grose, Prov. Gloss.
4. Comb., as lazy-boned, -paced, -puffing adjs.; lazy-board (U.S.), a short board on the left side of a waggon, used by teamsters to ride on (Cent. Dict.); lazy-boots colloq. = LAZY-BONES; lazy-cock (U.S.), ‘a cock controlling the pipe between the feed-pump of a locomotive and the hose from the tank of the tender’ (Funk); † lazy-gut, a glutton; lazy-guy Naut. (see GUY sb.1 2); lazy-jack, ‘a lifting device of compounded levers on the principle of the lazy-tongs’ (Knight, Dict. Mech., 1875); lazy-legs = LAZY-BONES; lazy-painter, ‘a small temporary rope to hold a boat in fine weather’ (Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 1867); lazy-pinion, a pinion serving as a transmitter of motion between two other pinions or wheels (Cent. Dict.); lazy scissors = LAZY-TONGS.
1875. ‘A. R. Hope,’ My Schoolboy Fr., 148. One or two *lazy-boned fellows worked in bed.
1831. Lytton, Eug. Aram, I. ii. Why don’t you rise, Mr. *Lazy-boots? Where are your eyes? Don’t you see the young ladies?
1863. Mrs. Gaskell, Sylvia’s L., xxxv. Nancy … is gone to bed this hour past, like a lazy boots as she is.
1631. Celestina, IX. 105. This same *lazy-gut was the cause … of all this stay.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, xxi. Don’t lag behind already, *Lazy-legs!
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. vi. 106. The *lazy-paced (yet laborious) Asse.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., II. ii. 31. When he bestrides the *lazie puffing Cloudes.
1836. *Lazy scissors [see LAZY-TONGS].
Hence Lazyhood, laziness. Lazyish a., somewhat lazy.
1866. B. W. Procter, Mem. Lamb, 184. The imbecile, or those brought up in complete lazyhood.
1892. Argosy, Jan., 42. I have six long, delicious weeks of lazyhood before me.
1892. Spectator, 17 Dec., 878/2. The lazyish, slightly slatternly poor.
† B. sb. Used as a name for the SLOTH, Obs.
1682. Sir T. Browne, Chr. Mor., I. § 33. To tread a mile after … the heavy measures of the Lazy of Brazilia, were a most tiring Pennance.
