lacking definition | Dictionary.com

lack⋅ing

[lak-ing]

–preposition

1.	being without; not having; wanting; less: Lacking equipment, the laboratory couldn't undertake the research project.

–adjective

2.	wanting; deficient: He was found lacking in stamina.

Origin:
1350–1400; ME; see lack, -ing ²

lack

[lak]

–noun

1.	deficiency or absence of something needed, desirable, or customary: lack of money; lack of skill.

2.	something missing or needed: After he left, they really felt the lack.

–verb (used with object)

3.	to be without or deficient in: to lack ability; to lack the necessities of life.

4.	to fall short in respect of: He lacks three votes to win.

–verb (used without object)

5.	to be absent or missing, as something needed or desirable: Three votes are lacking to make a majority.

—Verb phrase

6.	lack in, to be short of or deficient in: What he lacks in brains, he makes up for in brawn.

Origin:
1125–75; ME lak; c. MLG lak, MD lac deficiency; akin to ON lakr deficient

Synonyms:
1. dearth, scarcity, paucity, deficit, insufficiency. 1, 3. want, need. 3. Lack, want, need, require as verbs all stress the absence of something desirable, important, or necessary. Lack means to be without or to have less than a desirable quantity of something: to lack courage, sufficient money, enough members to make a quorum. Want may imply some urgency in fulfilling a requirement or a desire: Willing workers are badly wanted. The room wants some final touch to make it homey. Need often suggests even more urgency than does want stressing the necessity of supplying what is lacking: to need an operation, better food, a match to light the fire. Require, which expresses necessity as strongly as need, occurs most frequently in serious or formal contexts: Your presence at the hearing is required. Successful experimentation requires careful attention to detail.

Antonyms:
1. surplus.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To lacking

lack (lāk)

Deficiency or absence: Lack of funding brought the project to a halt.
A particular deficiency or absence: Owing to a lack of supporters, the reforms did not succeed.

v.   lacked, lack·ing, lacks

v.   tr.
To be without or in need of: lacked the strength to lift the box.
v.   intr.

To be missing or deficient: We suspected that he was lying, but proof was lacking.
To be in need of something: She does not lack for friends.

[Middle English, perhaps from Middle Dutch lac, deficiency, fault.]

Synonyms: These verbs mean to be without something, especially something that is necessary or desirable. Lack emphasizes the absence of something: She lacks the money to buy new shoes. The plant died because it lacked moisture.
Want and need stress the urgent necessity for filling a void or remedying an inadequacy: "Her pens were uniformly bad and wanted fixing" (Bret Harte). The garden needs care.

Usage Note: When lack is used intransitively, the present participle is generally followed by in: You will not be lacking in support from me. Other forms of the intransitive verb are most often followed by for: In the terrible, beautiful age of my prime,/I lacked for sweet linen but never for time (E.B. White).

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