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Webster 1913 Edition

Easy

Eas′y

,
Adj.
[
Com
par.
Easier
;
sup
erl.
Easiest
.]
[OF.
aisié
, F.
aisé
, prop. p. p. of OF.
aisier
. See
Ease
,
Verb.
T.
]
1.
At ease; free from pain, trouble, or constraint
; as:
(a)
Free from pain, distress, toil, exertion, and the like; quiet;
as, the patient is
easy
.
(b)
Free from care, responsibility, discontent, and the like; not anxious; tranquil;
as, an
easy
mind
.
(c)
Free from constraint, harshness, or formality; unconstrained; smooth;
as,
easy
manners; an
easy
style.
“The easy vigor of a line.”
Pope.
2.
Not causing, or attended with, pain or disquiet, or much exertion; affording ease or rest;
as, an
easy
carriage; a ship having an
easy
motion;
easy
movements, as in dancing
.
“Easy ways to die.”
Shak.
3.
Not difficult; requiring little labor or effort; slight; inconsiderable;
as, an
easy
task; an
easy
victory.
It were an
easy
leap.
Shakespeare
4.
Causing ease; giving freedom from care or labor; furnishing comfort; commodious;
as,
easy
circumstances; an
easy
chair or cushion.
5.
Not making resistance or showing unwillingness; tractable; yielding; complying; ready.
He gained their
easy
hearts.
Dryden.
He is too tyrannical to be an
easy
monarch.
Sir W. Scott.
6.
Moderate; sparing; frugal.
[Obs.]
Chaucer.
7.
(Com.)
Not straitened as to money matters;
as, the market is
easy
; – opposed to
tight
.
Syn. – Quiet; comfortable; manageable; tranquil; calm; facile; unconcerned.

Webster 1828 Edition

Easy

E'ASY

,
Adj.
s as z. [See Ease.] Quiet;being at rest; free from pain, disturbance or annoyance. The patient has slept well and is easy.
1.
Free from anxiety, care, solicitude or peevishness; quiet; tranquil; as an easy mind.
2.
Giving no pain or disturbance; as an easy posture; an easy carriage.
3.
Not difficult; that gives or requires no great labor or exertion; that presents no great obstacles; as an easy task. It is often more easy to resolve, than to execute.
Knowledge is easy to him that understandeth. Prov.14.
4.
Not causing labor or difficulty. An easy ascent or slope, is a slope rising with a small angle.
5.
Smooth; not uneven; not rough or very hilly; that may be traveled with ease; as an easy road.
6.
Gentle; moderate; not pressing; as a ship under easy sail.
7.
Yielding with little or no resistance; complying; credulous.
With such deceits he gained their easy hearts.
8.
Ready; not unwilling; as easy to forgive.
9.
Contented; satisfied. Allow hired men wages that will make them easy.
10. Giving ease; freeing from labor, care or the fatigue of business; furnishing abundance without toil; affluent; as easy circumstances; an easy fortune.
11. Not constrained; not stiff or formal; as easy manners; an easy address; easy movements in dancing.
12. Smooth; flowing; not harsh; as an easy style.
13. Not jolting; as, the horse has an easy gait.
14. Not heavy or burdensome.
My yoke is easy, and my burden light. Matt.11.

Definition 2024

easy

easy

English

Alternative forms

Adjective

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

  1. (now rare except in certain expressions) Comfortable; at ease.
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 16, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
      “[…] 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.‎
  2. Requiring little skill or effort.
    It's often easy to wake up but hard to get up.‎
    • 2013 August 10, “A new prescription”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
      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.
    The teacher gave an easy test to her students.‎
  3. Causing ease; giving comfort, or freedom from care or labour.
    Rich people live in easy circumstances.
    an easy chair
  4. Free from constraint, harshness, or formality; unconstrained; smooth.
    easy manners; an easy style
    • Alexander Pope
      the easy vigour of a line
  5. (informal, pejorative, of a person) Consenting readily to sex.
    He has a reputation for being easy; they say he slept with half the senior class.‎
  6. Not making resistance or showing unwillingness; tractable; yielding; compliant.
    • Dryden
      He gained their easy hearts.
    • Sir Walter Scott
      He is too tyrannical to be an easy monarch.
  7. (finance, dated) Not straitened as to money matters; opposed to tight.
    The market is easy.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Adverb

easy ‎(comparative easier, superlative easiest)

  1. In a relaxed or casual manner
    'After his illness, John decided to take it easy.‎
  2. In a manner without strictness or harshness.
    Jane went easier on him after he broke his arm.‎
  3. Used an intensifier for large magnitudes.
    This project will cost 15 million dollars, easy.‎
  4. Not difficult, not hard. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Noun

easy ‎(plural easies)

  1. Something that is easy

Verb

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

  1. (rowing) Synonym of easy-oar

Anagrams

Etymology

From Middle English eesy, esy, partly from Middle English ese ‎(“ease”) + -y, equivalent to ease +‎ -y, and partly 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 ‎(“not difficult, easy”), from Old English ēaþe, īeþe ‎(“easy, smooth, not difficult”), from Proto-Germanic *auþaz, *auþijaz ‎(“easy, pleasing”), from *auþiz ‎(“vacant, empty”), from Proto-Indo-European *aut- ‎(“empty, lonely”). Compare also Old Saxon ōþi ‎(“easy, vacant, empty”), Old High German ōdi ‎(“easy, effortless, vacant, empty”), Old Norse auðr ‎(“easy, vacant, empty”). More at ease, eath.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈiːzi/
  • Rhymes: -iːzi

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