Dossing

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To engage in a type of relaxed or idling behavior, often associated with lounging or being lazy
2. Describing the act of resting or doing very little, typically in a casual or unproductive manner
3. Referring to a state of being unhurried while reclining or taking time off from work or obligations

Etymology: Victorian London gave this word its first meaning: a "doss-house" was a cheap lodging house where poorer people paid a few pence for a bed, often a shared one. To doss was to sleep in such a place, or simply to find a bed for the night. The noun behind it, "dosser," meant a bed or a mattress in this slang, and the older sense of "dosser" was a pack or basket carried on the back. That points back to Old French "dossier," a backrest, from Latin "dorsum," "back," though the exact route from the Latin to the London slang is not fully documented. Over the following decades the sense loosened. Someone who dossed was no longer necessarily homeless or sleeping rough. They were just lying about, doing nothing in particular, which is why "dossing around" or "dossing about" now means idling or lounging. The shift runs from a specific, grim condition, needing a cheap bed, to the broad leisure of doing very little.

Synonyms: sleeping, napping

Antonyms: working