slackery

slackery

English

Etymology 1

slack +‎ -ery

Noun

slackery (uncountable)

1. Laxity; idleness; lack of requisite effort.
   • 1917, Mary Fanton Roberts, The Touchstone, page 141:

     When all intelligent influences and organizations are working as never before to obtain the biggest possible product from the soil, does it not seem slackery of the worst sort for any one who has, or can get a patch of tillable soil, or can manage to squeeze out a half hour, morning or evening, for seeding or weeding, to neglect the opportunity to serve.

   • 1917, Rupert Hughes, We Can't Have Everything: A Novel, page 582:

     The probability of a call to arms, not against Mexico, but against the almost almighty German Empire, was so great that it looked like slackery or cowardice to ask to be excused.

   • 2009, Blake Bailey, Cheever, Vintage (→ISBN), page 94:

     It was especially had for Cheever, whose family took a dim view of New Deal slackery, and whose own Yankee scruples were such that— four decades later, blessedly solvent—he'd try to return his first Social Security check.

   • 2009, Phil Villarreal, Secrets of a Stingy Scoundrel: 100 Dirty Little Money-Grubbing Secrets, Simon and Schuster (→ISBN)

     Starbucks is nice, but I would suggest choosing a local place to stake out as your home base, because the few remaining local shops will do even more to accommodate your slackery.

Etymology 2

slacker +‎ -y

Adjective

slackery (not comparable)

1. (informal) Characteristic of a slacker.
   • 2003, Naomi Wolf, Misconceptions: Truth, Lies, and the Unexpected on the Journey to Motherhood, Anchor (→ISBN), page 32:

     A few weeks later, at my new OB/GYN's office, I overheard a slackery teenage girl on the phone to her friend.

   • 2003, Briton Hadden, Henry Robinson Luce, Time

     you might guess that The School of Rock is a skeptical, slackery satire with spasms of irony and angst.

Anagrams

• Rackleys