| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
| |
| lack |
| |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  l k |
| NOUN: | 1. Deficiency or absence: Lack of funding brought the project to a halt. 2. A particular deficiency or absence: Owing to a lack of supporters, the reforms did not succeed. | | VERB: | Inflected forms: lacked, lack·ing, lacks
| | TRANSITIVE VERB: | To be without or in need of: lacked the strength to lift the box. | | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To be missing or deficient: We suspected that he was lying, but proof was lacking. 2. To be in need of something: She does not lack for friends. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English, perhaps from Middle Dutch lac, deficiency, fault. | | SYNONYMS: | lack, want, need These verbs mean to be without something, especially something that is necessary or desirable. Lack emphasizes the absence of something: She lacks the money to buy new shoes. The plant died because it lacked moisture. Want and need stress the urgent necessity for filling a void or remedying an inadequacy: “Her pens were uniformly bad and wanted fixing” (Bret Harte). The garden needs care. | | USAGE NOTE: | When lack is used intransitively, the present participle is generally followed by in: You will not be lacking in support from me. Other forms of the intransitive verb are most often followed by for: In the terrible, beautiful age of my prime,/I lacked for sweet linen but never for time (E.B. White).
| | |
| |
| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
|
|
