lacking

noun, adj — 2 senses

lacking

noun

/ˈlækɪŋ/

1

The absence of something that is desirable or otherwise ought to be present.

Cagliostro, however, whatever his moral lackings, did not lack spirit; he was not the man to succumb to this kind of coercion.1914, Sax Rohmer, The Romance of Sorcery:

lacking

adj

1

Missing or not having enough of (a good quality, etc).

This cheese is lacking in pungency.
The team was lacking in stamina and lost the match decidedly.

1 more example

A few of the pieces of this jigsaw puzzle are lacking.

Synonyms: absent, awanting, bereft of, deficient of, deprived of, destitute of, devoid of, lacking, leer, poor in, robbed of, shorn of, stripped of, void of, wanting
Antonyms: present
Derived terms: catch lacking, lackingness
Related terms: lose, loss, rare
Hyponyms: achromatic, alexithymic, amorphous, bare-bones, beginningless, cheerless, foolish, impoverished, inexperienced, insubstantial, humorless, mute, naive, silent, stupid, unadorned, unemployed, uninhabited, unskilled, vague, weak, weak-minded, worthless

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.