I. eas ‧ y 1 S1 W1 /ˈiːzi/ BrE AmE adjective ( comparative easier , superlative easiest )
[ Word Family: noun : ↑ ease , ↑ unease , ↑ easiness , uneasiness; adverb : ↑ easily , ↑ uneasily , ↑ easy ; adjective : ↑ easy , ↑ uneasy ; verb : ↑ ease ]
[ Date: 1100-1200 ; Language: Old French ; Origin: aisié , from aise ; ⇨ ↑ ease 1 ]
1 . NOT 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 WORRIED 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 ATTACKED 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 out to end a situation in a way that seems easy, but is not the best or most sensible way:
I just took the easy way out and gave him some cash.
7 . have an easy time (of it) to have no problems or difficulties:
She’s not been having an easy time of it financially.
8 . easy money money that you do not have to work hard to get:
We can buy them for $10 and sell them for $25 – easy money.
9 . easy on the eye/ear pleasant to look at or listen to:
Soft colours are easy on the eye.
10 . it’s/that’s easy for you to say spoken used when someone has given you some advice that would be difficult for you to follow
11 . there are no easy answers used when saying that it is difficult to find a good way of dealing with a problem
12 . I’m easy spoken used to say that you do not mind what choice is made:
‘What would you like to do now?’ ‘I don’t know, I’m easy.’
13 . be (living) on easy street especially American English informal to be in a situation in which you have plenty of money:
If I get this new job, we’ll be living on easy street.
14 . on easy terms if you buy something on easy terms, you pay for it with several small payments instead of paying the whole amount at once:
New settlers in the west could buy land on relatively easy terms.
15 . eggs over easy American English eggs cooked on a hot surface and turned over quickly before serving
16 . woman/lady/girl of easy virtue old-fashioned a woman who has sex with a lot of men
17 . SEX informal someone, especially a woman, who is easy has a lot of sexual partners
⇨ ↑ ease , ↑ easily
• • •
THESAURUS
▪ easy not difficult to do, and not needing much effort:
an easy task
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The house was easy to find.
▪ simple easy and not complicated – used about things such as instructions and explanations, or about machines and systems:
The system is relatively simple to operate.
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a simple recipe for chocolate cake
▪ straightforward easy to understand or do, and unlikely to cause you any problems:
a straightforward explanation
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The calculation is fairly straightforward.
▪ user-friendly easy to use – used especially about computers or written information about how to do something:
Their website is very user-friendly.
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a user-friendly guide to owning a dog
▪ undemanding easy because it does not take a lot of effort:
It 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 it:
It’s a pretty cushy job – all she has to do is drive a nice car around.
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a cushy number (=a very easy job)
▪ mindless so easy that you can do it without thinking – used especially when it makes you feel bored:
mindless tasks
▪ painless 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.
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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 with:
Things should be plain sailing from now on.
■ informal phrases meaning very easy
▪ be a piece of cake informal to be very easy to do, especially compared to doing something else:
This 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 dangerous:
Getting people’s credit card details is child’s play when you know how to do it.
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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 do:
The software is a doddle to use.
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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 it:
Making your PC run faster isn’t exactly rocket science.
II. easy 2 S2 BrE AmE adverb
[ Word Family: noun : ↑ ease , ↑ unease , ↑ easiness , uneasiness; adverb : ↑ easily , ↑ uneasily , ↑ easy ; adjective : ↑ easy , ↑ uneasy ; verb : ↑ ease ]
1 . take it easy
a) ( also take things easy ) to relax and not do very much:
Take things easy for a few days and you should be all right.
b) spoken used to tell someone to become less upset or angry:
Just take it easy and tell us what happened.
c) American English spoken used to say goodbye
2 . go easy on/with something to not use too much of something:
Go easy on salty foods such as bacon.
3 . go easy on somebody to be more gentle and less strict or angry with someone:
Go easy on Peter for a while – he’s having a hard time at school.
4 . easier said than done especially spoken used to say that something would be very difficult to do:
Finding the perfect house was easier said than done.
5 . rest/breathe easy to stop worrying:
We can rest easy now – we’ve got everything under control.
6 . easy does it spoken used to tell someone to be more careful and slow, especially in moving
7 . get off easy informal to escape severe punishment for something that you have done wrong:
The rich could hire good lawyers and get off easy.
8 . easy come, easy go spoken used when something, especially money, was easily obtained and is quickly used or spent
9 . stand easy an order telling soldiers who are already standing at ↑ ease to relax more