half-assed

[ haf-ast, hahf- ]
See synonyms for half-assed on Thesaurus.com
adjectiveSlang: Vulgar.
  1. insufficient or haphazard; not fully planned or developed.

  2. incompetent; lacking sufficient ability or knowledge.

Origin of half-assed

1
First recorded in 1960–65; half + ass2 + -ed3

Words Nearby half-assed

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use half-assed in a sentence

  • I didn't do it, and I can beat any case that half-assed ex-ambulance-chaser, Farnsworth, could dream up against me.

    Murder in the Gunroom | Henry Beam Piper

British Dictionary definitions for half-assed

half-assed

adjectiveUS and Canadian slang
  1. incompetent; inept

  2. lacking efficiency or organization

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012