Lack

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle)

CIDE DICTIONARY

Lack, n. [OE. lak; cf. D. lak slander, laken to blame, OHG. lahan, AS. leán.].

•  Blame; cause of blame; fault; crime; offense.  Chaucer.  [1913 Webster]
•  Deficiency; want; need; destitution; failure; as, a lack of sufficient food.  [1913 Webster]

  "She swooneth now and now for lakke of blood."  [1913 Webster]

  "Let his lack of years be no impediment."  [1913 Webster]

Lack, v. t. 

•  To blame; to find fault with.  [1913 Webster]

  "Love them and lakke them not."  [1913 Webster]
•  To be without or destitute of; to want; to need.  [1913 Webster]

  "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God."  [1913 Webster]

Lack, v. i. 

•  To be wanting; often, impersonally, with of, meaning, to be less than, short, not quite, etc.  [1913 Webster]

  "What hour now?
  I think it lacks of twelve."  [1913 Webster]

  "Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty."  [1913 Webster]
•  To be in want.  [1913 Webster]

  "The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger."  [1913 Webster]

Lack, interj. [Cf. Alack.].

 Exclamation of regret or surprise.  Cowper.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Lack, n. & v.
--n. (usu. foll. by of) an absence, want, or deficiency (a lack of talent; felt the lack of warmth).
--v.tr. be without or deficient in (lacks courage).

Idiom

for lack of owing to the absence of (went hungry for lack of money). lack for lack.

Etymology

ME lac, lacen, corresp. to MDu., MLG lak deficiency, MDu. laken to lack

THESAURUS

Lack

absence, adulteration, arrearage, awayness, bare cupboard, bare subsistence, be found wanting, be in want, be insufficient, be pinched, be poor, beggarliness, beggary, blank, break, collapse, come short, dearth, decline, defalcation, default, defect, defectibility, defectiveness, deficiency, deficit, deprivation, destitution, discontinuity, drought, empty purse, erroneousness, fail, fail of, fall away, fall short, fall shy, fallibility, famine, faultiness, gap, go on welfare, grinding poverty, gripe, hand-to-mouth existence, hiatus, homelessness, immaturity, impairment, imperfection, impoverishment, impurity, inaccuracy, inadequacy, inadequateness, incompleteness, indigence, inexactitude, inexactness, insufficiency, interval, kick the beam, lacuna, lag, lose ground, mediocrity, mendicancy, miss, missing link, moneylessness, necessitousness, necessity, need, neediness, neverness, nonexistence, nonoccurrence, nonpresence, not answer, not hack it, not make it, not make out, not measure up, not qualify, not stretch, not suffice, nowhereness, omission, outage, patchiness, paucity, pauperism, pauperization, penury, pinch, privation, require, run short, run short of, scantiness, scarcity, shortage, shortcoming, shortfall, sketchiness, slump, starvation, starve, stop short, subtraction, ullage, underage, undevelopment, unevenness, unperfectedness, unsoundness, want, wantage

ROGET THESAURUS

Lack

Requirement

VB require, need, want, have occasion for, not be able to do without, not be able to dispense with, prerequire, render necessary, necessitate, create a, necessity for, call for, put in requisition, make a requisition, stand in need of, lack, desiderate, desire, be necessary Adj.

Insufficiency

N insufficiency, inadequacy, inadequateness, incompetence, deficiency, imperfection, shortcoming, paucity, stint, scantiness, none to spare, bare subsistence, scarcity, dearth, want, need, lack, poverty, exigency, inanition, starvation, famine, drought, dole, mite, pittance, short allowance, short commons, half rations, banyan day, emptiness, poorness, depletion, vacancy, flaccidity, ebb tide, low water, a beggarly account of empty boxes, indigence, insolvency, drain of resources, impoverish, stint, put on short allowance, do insufficiently, scotch the snake, Adj, insufficient, inadequate, too little, not enough, unequal to, incompetent, weighed in the balance and found wanting, perfunctory, deficient, wanting imperfect, ill-furnished, ill-provided, ill- stored, ill-off, slack, at a low ebb, empty, vacant, bare, short of, out of, destitute of, devoid of, bereft of, denuded of, dry, drained, unprovided, unsupplied, unfurnished, unreplenished, unfed, unstored, untreasured, empty-handed, meager, poor, thin, scrimp, sparing, spare, stinted, starved, starving, halfstarved, famine-stricken, famished, jejune, scant, scarce, not to be had, not to be had for love or money, not to be had at any price, scurvy, stingy, at the end of one's tether, without resources, in want, in debt, insufficiently, in default of, for want of, failing, semper avarus eget.

VB be insufficient, not suffice, come short of, run dry, want, lack, need, require, caret, be in want, live from hand to mouth, render insufficient Adj, drain of resources, impoverish, stint, put on short allowance, do insufficiently, scotch the snake.

Incompleteness

VB be incomplete, fall short of, lack, neglect.

Poverty

N poverty, indigence, penury, pauperism, destitution, want, need, neediness, lack, necessity, privation, distress, difficulties, wolf at the door, bad circumstances, poor circumstances, need circumstances, embarrassed circumstances, reduced circumstances, straightened circumstances, slender means, narrow means, straits, hand to mouth existence, res angusta domi, low water, impecuniosity, beggary, mendicancy, mendicity, broken fortune, loss of fortune, insolvency, empty pocket, empty purse, light purse, beggarly account of empty boxes, poor man, pauper, mendicant, mumper, beggar, starveling, pauvre diable, fakir, schnorrer, homeless person, poor, indigent, poverty-stricken, badly off, poorly off, ill off, poor as a rat, poor as a church mouse, poor as a Job, fortuneless, dowerless, moneyless, penniless, unportioned, unmoneyed, impecunious, out of money, out of cash, short of money, short of cash, without a rap, not worth a rap, qui n'a pas le sou, out of pocket, hard up, out at elbows, out at heels, seedy, bare-footed, beggarly, beggared, destitute, fleeced, stripped, bereft, bereaved, reduced, homeless, in want, needy, necessitous, distressed, pinched, straitened, put to one's shifts, put to one's last shifts, unable to keep the wolf from the door, unable to make both ends meet, embarrassed, under hatches, involved, insolvent, in forma pauperis, zonam perdidit, a penniless lass wi' a lang pedigree, a pobreza no hay verguenza, he that is down can fall no lower, poca roba poco pensiero, steeped, in poverty to the very lips, the short and simple annals of the poor.

VB be poor, want, lack, starve, live from hand to mouth, have seen better days, go down in the world, come upon the parish, go to the dogs, go to wrack and ruin, not have a penny, not have a shot in one's locker, beg one's bread, tirer le diable par la queue, run into debt, render poor, impoverish, reduce, reduce to poverty, pauperize, fleece, ruin, bring to the parish.