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Deficiency; want; need; destitution; failure; as, a lack of sufficient food. She swooneth now and now for lakke of blood. Chaucer. Let his lack of years be no impediment. Shak.

One who lacks or is in want.

A want of luster. -- a.

The inarticulate sounds by which animals inferior to man express their feelings or their wants.

Lacking or wanting language; speechless; silent. Shak.

Loose; lascivious. [Obs.] "To depaint lascious wantonness." Holland.

Lasciviousness; wantonness. [Obs.]

Wanton; lewd; lustful; as, lascivious men; lascivious desires. Milton.

thong or braided cord of a whip, with which the blow is given. I observed that your whip wanted a lash to it. Addison.

The state or quality of being lax; want of tenseness, strictness, or exactness.

The state or quality of being lax; want of tenseness, strictness, or exactness.

Wanting flesh; destitute of or deficient in fat; not plump; meager; thin; lank; as, a lean body; a lean cattle.

Empty; destitute; wanting; as:

a simple pulsating vessel. The blood is colorless; the brain, renal organs, and limbs are wanting, and the backbone is represented only by a simple, unsegmented notochord. See Amphioxus. [Written also Leptocardii.]

Characterized by license; passing due bounds; excessive; abusive of freedom; wantonly offensive; as, a licentious press. A wit that no licentious pertness knows. Savage.

Indulging in, or inclined to, levity; wanting dignity or solemnity; trifling; gay; frivolous; airy; unsubstantial. Seneca can not be too heavy, nor Plautus too light. Shak. Specimens of New England humor laboriously light and lamentably mirthful. Hawthorne.

Hence: A light or wanton woman. Beau. & Fl.

rimony . . . is not by any to be enterprised, nor taken in hand, unadvisedly, lightly, or wantonly. Book of Common Prayer [Eng. Ed.].

Alone, or in want of company; forsaken. To the misled and lonely traveler. Milton.

Wanting strength or animation; depressed; dejected; as, low spirits; low in spirits.