lax

1
[ laks ]
See synonyms for lax on Thesaurus.com
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.

  1. not rigidly exact or precise; vague: lax ideas.

  2. open, loose, or not retentive, as diarrheal bowels.

  3. (of a person) having the bowels unusually loose or open.

  4. open or not compact; having a loosely cohering structure; porous: lax tissue;lax texture.

  5. Phonetics. (of a vowel) articulated with relatively relaxed tongue muscles.: Compare tense1 (def. 4).

Origin of lax

1
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin laxus “loose, spacious, wide”; akin to languēre “to be sluggish, faint, unwell”; cognate with Old English slæc slack1

Other words from lax

  • lax·ly, adverb
  • lax·ness, noun
  • o·ver·lax, adjective
  • o·ver·lax·ly, adverb
  • o·ver·lax·ness, noun

Other definitions for lax (2 of 2)

lax2
[ laks ]

nounInformal.
  1. lacrosse: To handle my course load, I know I have to cut back on extracurricular activities, but no way am I giving up lax.

Origin of lax

2
First recorded in 1970–75; la(crosse) + x3 “a cross,” (in the sense cross, a pun on crosse, the stick used in lacrosse)

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

British Dictionary definitions for lax

lax

/ (læks) /


adjective
  1. lacking firmness; not strict

  2. lacking precision or definition

  1. not taut

  2. 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

  3. (of flower clusters) having loosely arranged parts

Origin of lax

1
C14 (originally used with reference to the bowels): from Latin laxus loose

Derived forms of lax

  • laxly, adverb
  • laxity or laxness, noun

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