Word.ws English Dictionary

half-assed

US/ˈhæfæst/

half-assed adjective: poorly or incompetently done; desultory. Also the simple past and past participle of half-ass.

Adjective

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

  1. (slang, vulgar) Poorly or incompetently done; desultory.
    • Near-synonym: halfhearted
    • a half-assed attempt at something

Also used as

half-assed is also the simple past and past participle of half-ass.

half-assed meaning in Tamil

half-assed in Tamil

poorly or incompetently done
அரைகுறை araikuṟai

Synonyms of half-assed

Forms of half-assed

comparativemore half-assed
superlativemost half-assed
alternative Commonwealth Ireland UKhalf-arsed

Origin of half-assed

Possibly a humorous mispronunciation of haphazard.

Words formed from half-assed

Questions about half-assed

What does half-assed mean?
Half-assed means poorly or incompetently done; desultory.
What is half-assed in Tamil?
Half-assed in Tamil is அரைகுறை (araikuṟai). See Half-assed meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is half-assed?
Half-assed is an adjective.
How do you pronounce half-assed?
Half-assed is pronounced /ˈhæfæst/ (US).

Words near half-assed in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: half-assed (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-assed.wav.

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