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adjective, lax·er, lax·est.
1.
not strict or severe; careless or negligent: lax morals; a lax attitude toward discipline.
2.
loose or slack; not tense, rigid, or firm: a lax rope; a lax handshake.
3.
not rigidly exact or precise; vague: lax ideas.
4.
open, loose, or not retentive, as diarrheal bowels.
5.
(of a person) having the bowels unusually loose or open.
6.
open or not compact; having a loosely cohering structure; porous: lax tissue; lax texture.
7.
Phonetics. (of a vowel) articulated with relatively relaxed tongue muscles. Compare tense1 ( def 4 ).
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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00:10
Lax
is an SAT word you need to know.
So is butte. Does it mean:
| isolated hill or mountain rising abruptly above the surrounding land |
| indifference, lack of concern, composure |
Collins
World English Dictionary
lax (læks) ![[Click for IPA pronunciation guide]](http://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gif) | |
| —adj | |
| 1. | lacking firmness; not strict |
| 2. | lacking precision or definition |
| 3. | not taut |
| 4. | phonetics (of a speech sound) pronounced with little muscular effort and consequently having relatively imprecise accuracy of articulation and little temporal duration. In English the vowel i in bit is lax |
| 5. | (of flower clusters) having loosely arranged parts |
| [C14 (originally used with reference to the bowels): from Latin laxus loose] | |
| 'laxly | |
| —adv | |
| 'laxity | |
| —n | |
| 'laxness | |
| —n | |
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History
lax
c.1400, "loose" (in ref. to bowels), from L. laxus "wide, loose, open," from PIE base *sleg- "to be slack, be languid" (cf. Gk. legein "to leave off, stop," lagos "hare," lit. "with drooping ears," lagnos "lustful, lascivious," lagaros "slack, hollow, shrunken;" L. languere "to be faint, weary," languidis
"faint, weak, dull, sluggish, languid"). Of rules, discipline, etc., attested from mid-15c. Related: Laxity.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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FOLDOC
Computing Dictionary
LAX definition
LAnguage eXample.
A toy language used to illustrate compiler design.
["Compiler Construction", W.M. Waite et al, Springer 1984].
(1994-12-07)
American Heritage
Abbreviations & Acronyms
| LAX Los Angeles International Airport |
The American Heritage® Abbreviations Dictionary, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Example sentences
The government has been so lax in pursuing some oil crimes that it can seem complicit.
Government security, by comparison, is surprisingly lax.
Those who smuggle counterfeit medicines, by contrast, have often faced lax enforcement and light punishment.
The risk of rising inflation-the standard penalty for lax monetary policy-is slight given ample spare capacity in rich economies.
Nearby Words
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