March 2007

Just Foolin' Around

Spring fever is defined as "a lazy or restless feeling often associated with the onset of spring." Feel like wasting a little time mulling over a few adjectives meaning "lazy" or "restless?" Our search netted 23 lazy adjectives and 24 restless ones.

The "lazy" list ranges from the obsolete indiligent and the archaic luskish to the dialectal limpsy and lither. Then there's the euphemistic work-shy and the popular feckless. "Restless" adjectives skip around from the musical agitato to the medical erethic and from the Scottish fidgin fain to the English dialectal haunty.

It's easy to play around with adjectives online. Select the Unabridged as your reference source, and click on Advanced Search. Type "adjective" in the Function field, and type whatever adjective interests you — lazy, restless, or others! — in the Definition field. Then click on Search and start fooling around with your list.