lacking in

noun

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

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

verb (used with object)

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

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

verb (used without object)

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

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Lacking in is always a great word to know.

So is quincunx. Does it mean:

a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.

an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.

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Verb phrases

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

Origin:
1125–75; Middle English lak; cognate with Middle Low German lak, Middle Dutch lac deficiency; akin to Old Norse 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. 2013.
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Link To lacking in

Collins

World English Dictionary

lack (læk)

—n
1.	an insufficiency, shortage, or absence of something required or desired
2.	something that is required but is absent or in short supply

—vb (when intr, often foll by in or for)
3.	to be deficient (in) or have need (of): to lack purpose

[C12: related to Middle Dutch laken to be wanting]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

lack

c.1200, may have existed as unrecorded O.E. *lac or else it was borrowed from M.Du. lak "deficiency, fault;" in either case from P.Gmc. *laka- (cf. O.N. lakr "lacking"). The verb is attested earlier, late 12c., but is considered to be from the noun. Related: Lacking.

Matching Quote

"We must bear in mind the distinction between fame and honor. A virtuous person is an honorable person, a person who ought to be honored by the community in which he or she lives. But the virtuous person does not seek honor, being secure in his or her own self-respect. Lack of honor does not in any way detract from the efficacy of moral virtue as an indispensable operative means in the pursuit of happiness.... Those totally lacking in virtue may achieve fame as readily as, perhaps even more easily than those who are virtuous. Fame belongs to the great, the outstanding, the exceptional, without regard to virtue or vice. Infamy is fame no less than good repute. The great scoundrel can be as famous as the great hero; there can be famous villains as well as famous saints. Existing in the reputation a person has regardless of his or her accomplishments, fame does not tarnish as honor does when it is unmerited."

-Mortimer J. Adler

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