half-assed

half-assed

See also: halfassed

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Possibly a humorous mispronunciation of haphazard.[1]

Pronunciation

  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈhæfæst/, /hæfˈæst/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)

Adjective

half-assed (comparative more half-assed, superlative most half-assed)

  1. (slang, vulgar) Poorly or incompetently done; desultory.
    Synonyms: half-ass, narrow-assed
    Coordinate terms: quarter-assed, whole-ass
    Near-synonym: halfhearted
    a half-assed attempt at something
    • 2017 December 1, Tom Breihan, “Mad Max: Fury Road might already be the best action movie ever made”, in The Onion AV Club[1], archived from the original on 7 March 2022:
      We’ve been settling for half-assed bullshit for too long.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

half-assed

  1. simple past and past participle of half-ass

See also

References

  1. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “half-assed”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Further reading