laid-back

adjective

Relaxed and easy‐going; demonstrating an absence of stress or worry.

Meanings

adjectivelaid-back (comparative more laid-back, superlative most laid-back)

comparative more laid-back · superlative most laid-back

  1. Relaxed and easy‐going; demonstrating an absence of stress or worry.

    You have to accept the deliberate unspeed of Italian timetables if you want the right to be liberated by their correspondingly laid‐back lifestyle.

    2019, Susan Levenstein, Dottoressa: An American Doctor in Rome, page 6
    2 more examples

    This hit‐writer of the early 60s came out with a highly contemporary style which fitted the fashionable term ‘laid‐back’, and her Tapestry album zoomed up to become one of the three biggest‐selling LPs of all time.

    1973 July 28, Melody Maker, page 36, column 2

    The V‐2’s directional system was notoriously erratic. In May 1947, a V‐2 launched from White Sands Proving Ground headed south instead of north, missing downtown Juarez, Mexico, by 3 miles. The Mexican government’s response to the American bombing was admirably laid back. General Enrique Diaz Gonzales and Consul General Raul Michel met with United States officials, who issued apologies and an invitation to come to “the next rocket shoot” at White Sands. […]

    2010, Mary Roach, “You Go First: The Alarming Prospect of Life Without Gravity”, in Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void, W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, page 90

    Synonyms: easygoing, unconcerned, airy, at ease, at peace, carefree, careless, casual

Synonyms & antonyms

More synonyms by meaning

adjectiveunhurried and relaxed

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

From U.S. slang. The verbal phrase lay back is attested from the late 1950s, whereas the adjectival form emerged in print in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Presumably originally a metaphor—literally, “sitting in a tilted‐back chair”, a relaxed posture.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Bulgarian непринуден
  • непринуден (neprinuden)relaxed and easy-going
Czech pohodový
  • pohodovýrelaxed and easy-going
Estonian vaoshoitud
  • vaoshoitudrelaxed and easy-going
Finnish rento
  • rentorelaxed and easy-going
French facile à vivre, sympathique
  • facile à vivrerelaxed and easy-going
  • sympathiquerelaxed and easy-going
  • décontractérelaxed and easy-going
German locker, lässig
  • lockerrelaxed and easy-going
  • lässigrelaxed and easy-going
  • entspanntrelaxed and easy-going
  • unbeschwertrelaxed and easy-going
Lithuanian atsipalaidavęs
  • atsipalaidavęsrelaxed and easy-going
Māori parohe, pāroherohe
  • paroherelaxed and easy-going
  • pāroheroherelaxed and easy-going
Polish wyluzowany
  • wyluzowanyrelaxed and easy-going
Russian безмятежный
  • безмятежный (bezmjatežnyj)relaxed and easy-going
Turkish rahat
  • rahatrelaxed and easy-going
Ukrainian розсла́блений, неви́мушений
  • розсла́блений (rozsláblenyj)relaxed and easy-going
  • неви́мушений (nevýmušenyj)relaxed and easy-going
Cite this entry
APA

laid-back. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/laid-back

MLA

“laid-back.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/laid-back. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “laid-back,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/laid-back.

Source: laid-back on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.