LAX

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does lax mean? 

• LAX (adjective)
  The adjective LAX has 4 senses:

1. lacking in rigor or strictness

2. pronounced with muscles of the tongue and jaw relatively relaxed (e.g., the vowel sound in 'bet')

3. lacking in firmness or tension; not taut

4. emptying easily or excessively

  Familiarity information: LAX used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LAX (adjective)

Comparative: laxer   
Superlative: laxest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lacking in rigor or strictness

Synonyms:

lax; slack

Context example:

slack in maintaining discipline

Similar:

negligent (characterized by neglect and undue lack of concern)

Derivation:

laxity; laxness (the quality of being lax and neglectful)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Pronounced with muscles of the tongue and jaw relatively relaxed (e.g., the vowel sound in 'bet')

Domain category:

phonetics (the branch of acoustics concerned with speech processes including its production and perception and acoustic analysis)

Antonym:

tense (pronounced with relatively tense tongue muscles (e.g., the vowel sound in 'beat'))

Sense 3

Meaning:

Lacking in firmness or tension; not taut

Context example:

a lax rope

Similar:

drooping; droopy; sagging (hanging down (as from exhaustion or weakness))

limp (lacking or having lost rigidity)

floppy (hanging limply)

loose; slack (not tense or taut)

loose-jointed (loosely articulated or constructed)

tensionless (free from tension)

wilted ((of plants) limp due to heat, loss of water, or disease)

Also:

loose (not tight; not closely constrained or constricted or constricting)

Antonym:

tense (taut or rigid; stretched tight)

Derivation:

laxness (the condition of being physiologically lax)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Emptying easily or excessively

Synonyms:

lax; loose

Context example:

loose bowels

Similar:

regular; unconstipated (not constipated)

Derivation:

laxness (the condition of being physiologically lax)

 Context examples 

Ah, pardon me, sister Mary, cried my uncle, I am old-fashioned enough to have principles—an anachronism, I know, in this lax age.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A rare variant of mycosis fungoides, characterized by the development of folds of lax skin in the axillae or groins.

(Granulomatous Slack Skin Disease, NCI Thesaurus)

The rough-and-tumble work in Afghanistan, coming on the top of a natural Bohemianism of disposition, has made me rather more lax than befits a medical man.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Even if we were as lax as we are, in all our arrangements, by choice—which we are not—even if we liked it, and found it agreeable to be so—which we don't—I am persuaded we should have no right to go on in this way.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)