Meanings
comparative more half-assed · superlative most half-assed · alternative Commonwealth Ireland UK half-arsed
- slangvulgarPoorly or incompetently done; desultory.
Near-synonym: halfhearted
2 more examples
a half-assed attempt at something
We’ve been settling for half-assed bullshit for too long.
2017 December 1, Tom Breihan, “Mad Max: Fury Road might already be the best action movie ever made”, in The Onion AV Club, archived from the original on 07 Mar 2022Synonyms: half-ass, narrow-assed, halfhearted
alternative Commonwealth Ireland UK half-arsed
- participlepastsimple past and past participle of half-ass
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectivePoorly or incompetently done; desultory.
Origin
Possibly a humorous mispronunciation of haphazard.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Finnish juosten kustu, hutiloitu
- juosten kustupoorly or incompetently done
- hutiloitupoorly or incompetently done
French bâclé, ni fait ni à faire
- bâclépoorly or incompetently done
- ni fait ni à fairepoorly or incompetently done
- à l'arrachepoorly or incompetently done
German schludrig
- schludrigpoorly or incompetently done
Polish niedorobiony, na pół gwizdka
- niedorobionypoorly or incompetently done
- na pół gwizdkapoorly or incompetently done
Portuguese meia boca
- meia bocapoorly or incompetently done
Tamil அரைகுறை
- அரைகுறை (araikuṟai)poorly or incompetently done
Cite this entry
half-assed. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/half-assed
“half-assed.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/half-assed. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “half-assed,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/half-assed.
Source: half-assed on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.