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Time to put your feet up: words connected with doing nothing
By Liz Walter
It’s August, and for many people that means holiday time (vacation time if you’re a US English speaker), so in this post I thought I’d make some suggestions for words and phrases connected with being lazy and not doing much.
There are several words for lazy people. They are all negative, but some are more disapproving than others. Describing someone as a “layabout” indicates strong disapproval, while “lazybones” could be used almost affectionately. “Slacker” could be used seriously or semi-humorously, as could the informal “couch potato”. “Work-shy” is a very disapproving word, often used for unemployed people suspected of not wanting to get a job.
“Lazy” is a basic word (remember to change the ‘y’ to an ‘i’ in “laziness”). A less common synonym is “idle,” a word which we often make stronger by referring to someone as “bone idle” (extremely lazy). Interestingly, the adverb “idly” is used in much less disapproving contexts. You might, for example, be ‘idly drifting down a river’ or ‘idly flicking through a magazine’. The connotation here is one of a pleasant lack of purpose or hurry. “Slothful” is a rare and rather literary word: the noun “sloth” is one of the ‘seven deadly sins’ in Christian tradition.
There are also a number of disapproving idioms that we use to talk about lazy people. We might say that someone “didn’t lift a finger” (didn’t do any work at all), or – more rudely – that they “sat around on their backside (UK English)/ “sat around on their ass (US English)” doing nothing.
However, there are also some more positive words and phrases that we use when we feel the person concerned deserves some “rest and relaxation”. We talk about people “taking a break” and having a chance to “unwind” or “wind down” – words which have the image of a person being tightly wound up with stress and therefore needing to relax. We also say that people need to “recharge their batteries” by having a rest and building up their energy levels again. We might encourage a tired person to “put their feet up” for a while, or to “take it easy”.
Going on holiday gives us a chance to “kick back,” “chill out” or “laze around” – all phrasal verbs that basically mean relax and do nothing. We might describe a holiday as “restorative” if it makes us feel better than we felt before it, especially if it gives us “respite” (a pause or rest) from a difficult situation. If we describe an activity or a period of time as “leisurely” we mean that it is relaxed and there is no hurry involved.
If you are lucky enough to be taking a holiday this month, I hope you enjoy it. Look out for a post next month on the opposite topic – effort and hard work!
