lack for

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egerol1

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Hey fellow members of WR

I was just wondering what this sentence means:

It was lack for something

what does the verb structure "to be lack for ..." mean?
 

5jj

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Raymott

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Hey fellow members of WR

I was just wondering what this sentence means:

"It was lack for something."

what does the verb structure "to be lack for ..." mean?
You possibly mean "to be for/from the lack of".
"It was from lack of water that he died in the desert."

This Month's Special Tip: Please put your example in a full sentence that indicates how you're using the phrase.
 

egerol1

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Sorry I was mistaken it was "lack on"

"Your argument is lacking on all scientific merit."
This is a sentence from the big bang theory season 2 episode 11
 

birdeen's call

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I don't think this is correct and corpus search seems to confirm that. I would say "lacking in".
 

mayita1usa

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I don't think this is correct and corpus search seems to confirm that. I would say "lacking in".
Yes, absolutely true - lacking in, not on!

"Lack" can also be used with "for" in these two constructions:
1 - The concert was cancelled for lack of ticket sales.
2 - John and Jane have good incomes; their children don't lack for anything.
 

Raymott

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Sorry I was mistaken it was "lack on"

"Your argument is lacking on all scientific merit."
This is a sentence from the big bang theory season 2 episode 11
"Your argument is lacking [,] on scientific grounds."
This is a good sentence. But it doesn't use the collocation "lack on" (which probably doesn't exist). It simply follows "Your argument is lacking" with a prepositional phrase giving the reason - "on scientific grounds".
This was possibly the intention of the original, but with 'merit', I'd use "lacking in".
 
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