laze

laze

See also: laže, łażę, лазе, and лаже

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /leɪz/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪz
• Homophones: lase, lays

Etymology 1

Back-formation from lazy.

Verb

laze (third-person singular simple present lazes, present participle lazing, simple past and past participle lazed)

1. To be lazy, waste time.
   • 1599, Robert Greene, The Comicall Historie of Alphonsus, King of Aragon, London, Act III,

     Behold by millions how thy men do fall

     Before Alphonsus like to sillie sheepe.

     And canst thou stand still lazing in this sort?

   • 1635, George Wither, A Collection of Emblemes, Ancient and Moderne, London: John Grismond, Illustration 36, Book 1,

     And, lastly, such are they; that, having got

     Wealth, Knowledge, and those other Gifts, which may

     Advance the Publike-Good, yet, use them not;

     But Feede, and Sleepe, and laze their time away.

   • 1892, Israel Zangwill, Children of the Ghetto, being Pictures of a Peculiar People, Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, Volume 1, Chapter 13, p. 191,

     But for this anachronism of keeping Saturday holy when you had Sunday also to laze on, Daniel felt a hundred higher careers would have been open to him.

   • 1982, Don DeLillo, The Names, New York: Vintage, 1989, Chapter 7, p. 160,

     “I could easily fall into this,” I said. “Laze my way through life. Coffee here, wine there. You can channel significant things into the commonplace. Or you can avoid them completely.”

2. To pass time relaxing; to relax, lounge.

   The cat spent the afternoon lazing in the sun.

   • 1939, Graham Greene, The Lawless Roads, Penguin, 1982, Chapter 4, p. 93,

     A football game went on beside the line; half the teams just lazed on the grass […]

Synonyms

• idle
• loaf
• take it easy

Derived terms

• laze about
• laze around
• lazen
• lazy

Translations

be lazy, waste time

Bulgarian: мързелувам (mǎrzeluvam), безделнича (bg) (bezdelniča) Chinese: Mandarin: 散逛 (zh) (sǎnguàng) Czech: zahálet (cs) Finnish: laiskotella (fi), möllötellä German: Däumchen drehen (de) Hindi: मक्खियाँ मारना (makkhiyā̃ mārnā, literally “kill flies”) Hungarian: henyél (hu), lustálkodik (hu) Maori: whakapateko, whakapahoho Norwegian: late seg Polish: gnuśnieć impf, zgnuśnieć pf, pleśnieć impf, spleśnieć pf Portuguese: vadiar (pt) Russian: безде́льничать (ru) (bezdélʹničatʹ), лентя́йничать (ru) (lentjájničatʹ), бить баклу́ши (ru) (bitʹ baklúši) Spanish: holgazanear (es), haraganear (es), estar a la bartola, zanganear (es) Swedish: lata sig (sv)

Noun

laze (countable and uncountable, plural lazes)

1. (countable) An instance of lazing.

   I had a laze on the beach after lunch.

2. (uncountable) Laziness.

   The laze is real.

Etymology 2

Blend of lava +‎ haze

Noun

laze (uncountable)

1. Acidic steam created when super-hot lava contacts salt water.
   • 2010, Patricia Erfurt-Cooper, Malcolm Cooper, Volcano and Geothermal Tourism: Sustainable Geo-Resources for Leisure and Recreation:

     Moreover, dense laze plumes are known to contain as much as 10 to 15ppm of HCl (USGS, 2008).

See also

• fog, mist, haze and terms listed there
• smaze
• vog

Anagrams

• Elza, Zale, zale, zeal

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /laz/

Adjective

laze (plural lazes)

1. (relational) Laz

Noun

laze m (uncountable)

1. Laz (the language of the Laz people)

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Kapin

Noun

laze

1. nit

Further reading

• Malcolm Ross, Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian Languages of Western Melanesia, Pacific Linguistics, series C-98 (1988)