Word definition: easy

Etimology


From Middle English esy, eesy, partly from Middle English ese (“ease”) + -y, equivalent to ease +‎ -y, and partly from Anglo-Norman eisé from Old French aisié (“eased, at ease, at leisure”), past participle of aisier (“to put at ease”), from aise (“empty space, elbow room, opportunity”), of uncertain origin. See ease. Merged with Middle English ethe, eathe (“easy”), from Old English īeþe, from Proto-Germanic *auþuz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éwtus (“empty, lonely”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ew-. Compare also Old Saxon ōþi, Old High German ōdi, Old Norse auðr, all meaning "easy, vacant, empty." More at ease, eath.

adjective


easy (comparative easier or more easy, superlative easiest or most easy)

(now rare except in certain expressions) Comfortable; at ease.

Requiring little skill or effort.

Causing ease; giving comfort, or freedom from care or labour.

Free from constraint, harshness, or formality; unconstrained; smooth.

(informal, derogatory, of a woman) Consenting readily to sex.

Not making resistance or showing unwillingness; tractable; yielding; compliant.

(finance, dated) Not straitened as to money matters; opposed to tight.

Examples


“ […] She takes the whole thing with desperate seriousness. But the others are all easy and jovial—thinking about the good fare that is soon to be eaten, about the hired fly, about anything.”

Now that I know it's taken care of, I can rest easy at night.

It's often easy to wake up but hard to get up.

As the world's drug habit shows, governments are failing in their quest to monitor every London window-box and Andean hillside for banned plants. But even that Sisyphean task looks easy next to the fight against synthetic drugs. No sooner has a drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one.

You could just use ordinary shop-bought kecap manis to marinade the meat, but making your own is easy, has a far more elegant fragrance and is, above all, such a great brag! Flavouring kecap manis is an intensely personal thing, so try this version now and next time cook the sauce down with crushed, split lemongrass and a shredded lime leaf.

The teacher gave an easy test to her students.

Rich people live in easy circumstances.

an easy chair

easy manners; an easy style

the easy vigour of a line

She has a reputation for being easy; they say she slept with half the senior class.

He gain'd their easy hearts.

He is […] too tyrannical to be an easy monarch.

The market is easy.

Related words


synonyms

(comfortable): relaxed, relaxing

(not difficult): light, eath

(consenting readily to sex): fast

(requiring little skill or effort): soft, trivial, facile

See also Thesaurus:easy

antonyms

(comfortable, at ease): uneasy, anxious

(requiring little skill or effort): difficult, hard, uneasy, uneath, challenging

related terms

ease

adverb


easy (comparative easier, superlative easiest)

In a relaxed or casual manner.

In a manner without strictness or harshness; gently; softly.

Handily; at the very least.

Examples


After his illness, John decided to take it easy.

Everything comes easy to her.

We immediately threw out all the little things we had with us, ſuch as biſcuits, apples, &c. and after that one of our oars or wings; but ſtill deſcending, we caſt away the other wing, and then the governail ; having likewiſe had the precaution, for fear of accidents, while the Balloon was filling, partly to looſen and make it go eaſy, I now ſucceeded in attempting to reach without the Car, and unſcrewing the moulinet, with all its apparatus; I likewiſe caſt that into the ſea.

go easy on the sarcasm

Jane went easier on him after he broke his arm.

This project will cost 15 million dollars, easy.

noun


easy (plural easies)

Something that is easy. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

verb


easy (third-person singular simple present easies, present participle easying, simple past and past participle easied)

(rowing) Synonym of easy-oar

Data provided by Wiktionary