Word.ws English Dictionary

half-ass

US/ˈhæfæs/

half-ass adjective: produced in an incompetent or desultory manner, or of something lacking in quality or substance; of low rank; incompetent.

Adjective

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

  1. (slang, vulgar) Produced in an incompetent or desultory manner, or of something lacking in quality or substance; of low rank; incompetent.
    • the only abortion she could get even in the city would be a half-ass job by some half-ass doctor who could mess her up for the rest of her life1969, The End of the Road by John Barth (page 155)
    Synonyms:
    half-assed

Verb

half-ass (third-person singular simple present half-asses, present participle half-assing, simple past and past participle half-assed)

  1. (slang, transitive, vulgar) To perform a task incompletely or carelessly.
    • Near-synonyms: phone in, shortchange, underdo
    • Now, we go out there and we half-ass it because we're scared, all we're left with is an excuse. We're always gonna wonder. But, we go out there and we give it absolutely everything… that's heroic.1999, W. Peter Iliff, Varsity Blues, spoken by Mox (James Van Der Beek)

Synonyms of half-ass

Forms of half-ass

Adjective
comparativemore half-ass
superlativemost half-ass
alternative Commonwealth Ireland UKhalf-arse
Verb
third-person singular presenthalf-asses
present participlehalf-assing
past participlehalf-assed
pasthalf-assed

Origin of half-ass

From half + -ass, see half-assed.

Words formed from half-ass

Questions about half-ass

What does half-ass mean?
Half-ass means produced in an incompetent or desultory manner, or of something lacking in quality or substance; of low rank; incompetent.
What part of speech is half-ass?
Half-ass can be an adjective or a verb.
How do you pronounce half-ass?
Half-ass is pronounced /ˈhæfæs/ (US).

Words near half-ass in the dictionary

  1. half-ape
  2. half-apes
  3. half-arse
  4. half-arsed
  5. half-asleep
  6. half-ass
  7. half-assed
  8. half-assedly
  9. half-assedness
  10. half-assery
  11. half-asses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: half-ass (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-half-ass.wav.

Cite this entry: “half-ass.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/half-ass. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.