It’s November, and for many people that means Christmas holidays are near (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, whilelazybones 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)/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 next month, I hope you enjoy it!

Have fun!