Lax

• POS: Adjective

CIDE DICTIONARY

Lax, a. [L. laxus Cf. Laches, Languish, Lease, v. t., Leash.].

•  Not tense, firm, or rigid; loose; slack; as, a lax bandage; lax fiber.  [1913 Webster]

  "The flesh of that sort of fish being lax and spongy."  [1913 Webster]
•  Not strict or stringent; not exact; loose; weak; vague; equivocal.  [1913 Webster]

  "The discipline was lax."  [1913 Webster]

  "Society at that epoch was lenient, if not lax, in matters of the passions."  [1913 Webster]

  "The word “æternus” itself is sometimes of a lax signification."  [1913 Webster]
•  Having a looseness of the bowels; diarrheal.  [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- Loose; slack; vague; unconfined; unrestrained; dissolute; licentious.

Lax, n. 

 A looseness; diarrhea.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Lax, adj.
1 lacking care, concern, or firmness.
2 loose, relaxed; not compact.
3 Phonet. pronounced with the vocal muscles relaxed.

Derivative

laxity n. laxly adv. laxness n.

Etymology

ME, = loose, f. L laxus: rel. to SLACK(1)

THESAURUS

Lax

Micawberish, Paphian, abandoned, accented, accepting, admissive, aleatoric, aleatory, allowing, alveolar, amorphous, apical, apico-alveolar, apico-dental, approximate, approximative, articulated, assimilated, back, backward, bagging, baggy, barytone, behindhand, bilabial, blobby, blurred, blurry, bone-lazy, broad, broad-minded, cacuminal, cadging, careless, central, cerebral, chambering, chance, chancy, chaotic, checked, clement, close, compassionate, confused, consenting, consonant, consonantal, continuant, culpably negligent, dallying, dangling, delaying, delinquent, dental, derelict, dilatory, dillydallying, disordered, disregardful, dissimilated, do-nothing, doless, dorsal, dronish, drony, drooping, ease, ease off, easy, easygoing, ergophobic, faineant, flabby, flaccid, flapping, flat, flimsy, floppy, foggy, foot-dragging, forbearant, forbearing, forgetful, forgiving, freethinking, front, fuzzy, general, gentle, glide, glossal, glottal, go-go, good-for-nothing, guttural, hanging, hard, hazy, heavy, high, hit-or-miss, humane, ill-defined, immoderate, impotent, imprecise, inaccurate, inadvertent, inattentive, inchoate, incoherent, incontinent, incorrect, indecisive, indefinable, indefinite, indeterminable, indeterminate, indifferent, indistinct, indolent, indulgent, inexact, intemperate, intonated, irrepressible, labial, labiodental, labiovelar, lackadaisical, laggard, lagging, laissez-faire, lateral, latitudinarian, lazy, lenient, liberal, libertarian, libertine, licentious, light, limp, lingering, lingual, liquid, loitering, loose, loose-moraled, loosen, low, merciful, mid, mild, moderate, monophthongal, muted, narrow, nasal, nasalized, neglectful, neglecting, negligent, nonaggressive, noninterfering, nonprohibitive, nonrestrictive, nonspecific, oblivious, obscure, occlusive, of easy virtue, of loose morals, off-guard, open, open-minded, orderless, out of control, out of hand, out of line, out of plumb, out of square, out of true, overindulgent, overly permissive, overpermissive, oxytone, palatal, palatalized, parasitic, patient, permissive, permitting, pharyngeal, pharyngealized, phonemic, phonetic, phonic, pitch, pitched, posttonic, procrastinating, procrastinative, procrastinatory, promiscuous, rampant, random, regardless, reinless, relax, relaxed, remiss, retroflex, rickety, riotous, rounded, rubbery, scamping, scrounging, semivowel, shadowed forth, shadowy, shaky, shapeless, shiftless, shuffling, skimping, slack, slacken, slighting, slipshod, sloppy, slothful, slow, sluggish, slurring, soft, sonant, sponging, stochastic, stopped, streaming, stressed, strong, suffering, surd, sweeping, syllabic, tender, tense, thick, throaty, tolerant, tolerating, tonal, tonic, twangy, unaccented, unbigoted, unbridled, unchecked, uncircumspect, unclear, uncoerced, uncompelled, unconstrained, uncontrolled, uncurbed, undefined, undestined, undetermined, unenterprising, unfactual, unforced, ungoverned, unguarded, uninhibited, unmastered, unmeasured, unmindful, unmuzzled, unplain, unprecise, unprohibitive, unreined, unrepressed, unreserved, unrestrained, unrestrictive, unrigorous, unrounded, unruly, unspecified, unstressed, unsubdued, unsuppressed, untighten, unwary, unwatchful, vague, veiled, velar, vocalic, vocoid, voiced, voiceless, vowel, vowellike, wanton, wayward, weak, whorish, wide, wild, work-shy

ROGET THESAURUS

Lax

Incoherence

N incoherence, nonadhesion, immiscibility, incoherence, looseness, laxity, relaxation, loosening, freedom, disjunction, rope of sand, nonadhesive, immiscible, incoherent, detached, loose, baggy, slack, lax, relaxed, flapping, streaming, disheveled, segregated, like grains of sand unconsolidated &c, uncombined, noncohesive.

Laxity

N laxity, laxness, looseness, slackness, toleration, freedom, anarchy, interregnum, relaxation, loosening, remission, dead letter, brutum fulmen, misrule, license, licentiousness, insubordination, lynch law, nihilism, reign of violence, dethronement, deposition, usurpation, abdication, lax, loose, slack, remiss, weak, relaxed, licensed, reinless, unbridled, anarchical, unauthorized, adespotic.

Vice

N vice, evil-doing, evil courses, wrongdoing, wickedness, viciousness, iniquity, peccability, demerit, sin, Adam, old Adam, offending Adam, immorality, impropriety, indecorum, scandal, laxity, looseness of morals, enphagy, dophagy, exophagy, want of principle, want of ballast, obliquity, backsliding, infamy, demoralization, pravity, depravity, pollution, hardness of heart, brutality, corruption, knavery, profligacy, flagrancy, atrocity, cannibalism, lesbianism, Sadism, infirmity, weakness, weakness of the flesh, frailty, imperfection, error, weak side, foible, failing, failure, crying sin, besetting sin, defect, deficiency, cloven foot, lowest dregs of vice, sink of iniquity, Alsatian den, gusto picaresco, fault, crime, criminality, sinner, brothel, gambling house, joint, opium den, shooting gallery, crack house, vicious, sinful, sinning, wicked, iniquitous, immoral, unrighteous, wrong, criminal, naughty, incorrect, unduteous, undutiful, unprincipled, lawless, disorderly, contra bonos mores, indecorous, unseemly, improper, dissolute, profligate, scampish, unworthy, worthless, desertless, disgraceful, recreant, reprehensible, blameworthy, uncommendable, discreditable, disreputable, Sadistic, base, sinister, scurvy, foul, gross, vile, black, grave, facinorous, felonious, nefarious, shameful, scandalous, infamous, villainous, of a deep dye, heinous, flagrant, flagitious, atrocious, incarnate, accursed, Mephistophelian, satanic, diabolic, hellish, infernal, stygian, fiendlike, hell-born, demoniacal, devilish, fiendish, miscreated, misbegotten, demoralized, corrupt, depraved, evil-minded, evil-disposed, ill-conditioned, malevolent, heartless, graceless, shameless, virtueless, abandoned, lost to virtue, unconscionable, sunk in iniquity, lost in iniquity, steeped in iniquity, incorrigible, irreclaimable, obdurate, reprobate, past praying for, culpable, reprehensible, unjustifiable, indefensible, inexcusable, inexpiable, unpardonable, irremissible, weak, frail, lax, infirm, imperfect, indiscrete, demoralizing, degrading, wrong, sinfully, without excuse, Int, O tempora!, O mores!, alitur vitium vivitque tegendo, genus est mortis male vivere, mala mens malus animus, nemo repente fuit turpissimus, the trail of the serpent is over them all, to sanction vice and hunt decorum down.