Word family noun ease unease easiness uneasiness adjective easy uneasy verb ease adverb easily uneasily easy
From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englisheasyeas‧y1 /ˈiːzi/ ●●● S1 W1 adjective (comparative easier, superlative easiest) 1 NEARnot difficult not difficult to do, and not needing much effort OPP difficult, hard The test was easy. Finishing the task will not be easy. There must be an easier way to do that.easy to do something It’s a great car, and very easy to drive. instructions that are easy to follow It would have been easy for the team to lose the game.make it easier (to do something) The software makes it easier to download music. Having you here does make things a lot easier for me.as easy as pie/ABC/falling off a log (=very easy) The station is within easy reach of (=close to) the town centre. The park is within easy walking distance (=close enough to walk to).2 comfortable comfortable or relaxed, and without problems OPP hard On the whole, Dad has had an easy life.easy day/week etc She had a nice easy day at home. You can have an easy time of it now that the kids have all left home. Why don’t we make life easy for ourselves and finish it tomorrow?3 not worriedRELAXED not feeling worried or anxious OPP uneasy We talk more openly when we feel easy and relaxed. I can leave the children with my mother with an easy mind.4 friendly friendly and pleasant with other people She is gentle and easy to be with.5 easily attackedATTACK able to be hunted or attacked without difficulty The soldiers on the streets are an easy target for terrorists. Tourists are easy prey for thieves. 6 → take the easy way out7 → have an easy time (of it)8 → easy money9 → easy on the eye/ear10 → it’s/that’s easy for you to say11 → there are no easy answers12 → I’m easy13 → be (living) on easy street14 → on easy terms15 → eggs over easy16 → woman/lady/girl of easy virtue17 sex informalSY someone, especially a woman, who is easy has a lot of sexual partners → see also ease1, easilyTHESAURUSeasy not difficult to do, and not needing much effortan easy taskThe house was easy to find.simple easy and not complicated – used about things such as instructions and explanations, or about machines and systemsThe system is relatively simple to operate.a simple recipe for chocolate cakestraightforward easy to understand or do, and unlikely to cause you any problemsa straightforward explanationThe calculation is fairly straightforward.user-friendly easy to use – used especially about computers or written information about how to do somethingTheir website is very user-friendly.a user-friendly guide to owning a dogundemanding easy because it does not take a lot of effortIt was an undemanding role for someone of his experience.cushy /ˈkʊʃi/ informal a cushy job is easy to do and needs very little effort – often used when you are envious of the person who has itIt’s a pretty cushy job – all she has to do is drive a nice car around.a cushy number (=a very easy job)mindless so easy that you can do it without thinking – used especially when it makes you feel boredmindless taskspainless without any difficulties or problems – used especially when you expected something to be much worse Finding the carhire place at the airport was relatively painless. Thankfully, there's a wide selection of search tools to make the task relatively painless. be plain sailing British English, be smooth sailing American English to be easy and with no problems that you have to deal withThings should be plain sailing from now on.informal phrases meaning very easybe a piece of cake informal to be very easy to do, especially compared to doing something elseThis test was a piece of cake compared to the last one.be child’s play informal to be surprisingly easy, or much easier than something else which is very difficult or dangerousGetting people’s credit card details is child’s play when you know how to do it.Climbing in England is child’s play compared to climbing in the Himalayas.be a breeze informal (also be a doddle British English) to be very easy to doThe software is a doddle to use.The check-in process was a breeze.it’s not rocket science informal used when saying that something is very easy to do or understand, and you do not need to be intelligent to do itMaking your PC run faster isn’t exactly rocket science. Examples from the Corpus
easy• Susan's always found school work easy.• The questions were really easy.• Being a teacher isn't easy.• With the use of oil as a transport fuel for cars, things are not so easy.• Was it easy for you to find a job?• It's an easy journey - we just drive to the station, then take the direct train to Paris.• He has lived an easy life in college for the last few years.• I think Paul's had a pretty easy life.• Lawyers really have it easy -- lots of money for very little work.• The Merrimac laid off at easy point-blank range, discharging her broadsides alternately at the Cumberland and the Congress.• As on Suilven, the ridge dips to an easy saddle and rises to an east top.• This is of course very easy since what the spreadsheet has stored in cells C and D is a time serial number.• Ms. Morrell is a small woman with a soft voice and an easy smile.• Mr. Taylor is an easy teacher.• This is not an easy time to be traveling.• The Bit Shot is also quiet, lightweight and easy to handle.• Microsoft is a longer name, yet still easy to pronounce, and described the software product perfectly.• All the instructions are in large print to make them easy to read.• It was easy to see that he was clever and well read, but he was also boring.• It is easy to see why she didn't marry him.• He doesn't find it easy to talk about his personal feelings.• There's no easy way to solve this problem.easy to do something• Within this range, it is relatively easy to achieve off-line training, convergence, and modification.• The decision should be made in the first instance as if it were easy to be made.• It was easy to coax him into talking about pleasant things, that was part of his job.• They will be relatively easy to dispose of once the big warrens have been worked out and closed down.• Electrical recording has made this fatally easy to do: much easier than confiding to a written diary.• One simple solution which is easy to interpret is obtained by requiring that each term in the wave equation is separately zero.• Sometimes the lavas are hard and dense, broken but in place and easy to pick up with the manipulator.• Also has an easy to use editor.easy life• From boyhood he disdained an easy life.• His forefathers had built the mills, and it hadn't been a particularly easy life.• It was not an easy life.• Like Polonius, Amis passed on his secrets to an easy life.• Nockerd Sockett had not had an easy life.• I agree that it's not a particularly easy life for most people to support.• The easy life he had known seemed to have suddenly stopped.easy to be with• It was so easy to be with Sebastian.easy target• Well, the reader may say, he's small fry, an easy target.• Young people are an easy target.• It's always sad when a figure of fun, an easy target for a laugh, disappears into oblivion.• Such an organization would have been an easy target for Labour's disciplinarians.• That makes them easy targets for mining industry recruiters.• It was a natural and easy target for newspapers.• However, the uniformed, sixteen-legged crocodile was an easy target for ridicule.easyeasy2 ●●● S2 adverb 1 → take it easy2 → go easy on/with something3 → go easy on somebody4 → easier said than done5 → rest/breathe easy6 → easy does it7 → get off easy8 → easy come, easy go9 → stand easyFrom Longman Business Dictionaryeasyeas‧y /ˈiːzi/ adjective1(on) easy terms if you buy something on easy terms, you pay for it with several small payments, rather than paying the whole amount at onceFarmers can obtain credit on very easy terms from government sources.2be easier when prices are easier, they are slightly lowerGold was slightly easier yesterday, ending in London at $362.50 an ounce.3on easy street American English informal having all the money you needThe $2 million he has to invest will produce enough money to keep him on easy street for the rest of his life.Origin easy1 (1100-1200) Old French aisié, from aise; → EASE1 