Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Lack

Lack (lak) , noun

[Old English lak; compare Dutch lak slander, laken to blame, Old High German lahan, Anglo-Saxon leán.]

1.
Blame; cause of blame; fault; crime; offense. [Obsolete] — Chaucer
2.
Deficiency; want; need; destitution; failure; as, a lack of sufficient food.
She swooneth now and now for lakke of blood. — Chaucer
Let his lack of years be no impediment. — Shakespeare

Lack (lakt) , transitive verb

1.
To blame; to find fault with. [Obsolete]
Love them and lakke them not. — Piers Plowman
2.
To be without or destitute of; to want; to need.
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God. — James i. 5

Lack , intransitive verb

1.
To be wanting; often, impersonally, with of, meaning, to be less than, short, not quite, etc.
What hour now? I think it lacks of twelve. — Shakespeare
Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty. — Gen. xvii. 28
2.
To be in want.
The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger. — Bible (KJV) - Psalm xxxiv. 10

Lack , interjection

[Compare Alack.]

Exclamation of regret or surprise. [Provincial English] — Cowper