to lack, Is Lacking Most of Its Top Players, respectful attention

  So far people have generally taken at face value the image of Francis as a "barefoot pope" who is personally modest, feels compassion for the disadvantaged and is endowed with a basic human warmth that his predecessor seemed at times to lack. He is simply likeable, and that ensures that he commands some respectful attention (even from those who disagree with him) when he seems to be speaking rom the heart.


Obama’s Team Is Lacking Most of Its Top Players
By PETER BAKERAfter a summer of setbacks, President Obama has filled just 43 percent of more than 500 policymaking positions requiring Senate confirmation.





lack
n.

1. Deficiency or absence: Lack of funding brought the project to a halt.
2. A particular deficiency or absence: Owing to a lack of supporters, the reforms did not succeed.

v., lacked, lack·ing, lacks. v.tr.
To be without or in need of: lacked the strength to lift the box.
v.intr.

1. To be missing or deficient: We suspected that he was lying, but proof was lacking.
2. To be in need of something: She does not lack for friends.

[Middle English, perhaps from Middle Dutch lac, deficiency, fault.]

SYNONYMS lack, want, need. These verbs mean to be without something, especially something that is necessary or desirable. Lack emphasizes the absence of something: She lacks the money to buy new shoes. The plant died because it lacked moisture. Want and need stress the urgent necessity for filling a void or remedying an inadequacy: “Her pens were uniformly bad and wanted fixing” (Bret Harte). The garden needs care.

USAGE NOTE When lack is used intransitively, the present participle is generally followed by in: You will not be lacking in support from me. Other forms of the intransitive verb are most often followed by for: In the terrible, beautiful age of my prime,/I lacked for sweet linen but never for time (E.B. White).