• (RP, America) IPA: /læk/

From Middle English lack, lakke, lak, from Old English *læc, from Proto-West Germanic *lak, from Proto-Germanic *laką, *lakaz, from Proto-Germanic *lakaz, related to *lak(k)ōną, from Proto-Indo-European *lok-néh₂-.

Eclipsed non-native Middle English carence (“absence, lack”), from Old French carence.

lack

1. A deficiency or need (of something desirable or necessary); an absence, want.

   Antonyms: glut, surplus

   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act IV, scene i]:

     […] let his lack of years be no impediment to let him lack a reverend estimation;

2. (obsolete) A defect or failing; moral or spiritual degeneracy.
   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC ↗:

     In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned.

• French: manque, défaut, absence
• German: Mangel
• Italian: mancanza, scarsità, carenza, penuria
• Portuguese: falta, carência, deficiência, penúria, escassez
• Russian: отсу́тствие
• Spanish: falta, carencia, penuria, escasez

From Middle English lacken, lakken, laken, from Old English læccian, *lacian, from Proto-West Germanic *lak(k)ōn, from Proto-Germanic *lak(k)ōną, from Proto-Indo-European *lok-néh₂-.

lack (lacks, present participle lacking; simple past and past participle lacked)

1. (transitive, stative) To be without, not to have, to need, to require.

   My life lacks excitement.

2. (intransitive) To be short (of or for something).

   He'll never lack for company while he's got all that money.

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene iv]:

     Hamlet. What hour now?
     Horatio. I think it lacks of twelve.

3. (intransitive, obsolete) To be in want.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Psalms 34:10 ↗:

     The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger […]

4. (obsolete) To see the deficiency in (someone or something); to find fault with, to malign, reproach.
   • c. 1370–1390, [William Langland], “[Passus II]”, in The Vision of Pierce Plowman [...], London: […] Roberte Crowley, […], published 1550, →OCLC ↗:

     That is Mede þe Mayde quod she · hath noyed me ful oft / And ylakked my lemman.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• lackluster

• French: manquer
• German: mangeln, fehlen, (transitive, dated) entbehren
• Italian: mancare, scarseggiare, richiedere, necessitare
• Portuguese: faltar, carecer
• Russian: отсу́тствовать
• Spanish: faltar, carecer

lack (plural lacks)

1. Archaic form of lakh

   a lack of rupees