The Chinese word 偷懒 (tōulǎn), meaning "to be lazy" or "to shirk work," is a compound formed through semantic combination. It consists of the verb 偷 (tōu), meaning "to steal," and the adjective 懒 (lǎn), meaning "lazy." Together, they create a vivid, metaphorical phrase where "stealing laziness" figuratively describes the act of secretly or improperly avoiding effort or duty, thus capturing the essence of slacking off in a way that implies one is taking an illicit shortcut. This structure exemplifies how Chinese often forms expressive colloquial terms by combining concrete actions (偷) with abstract states (懒) to generate a new, idiomatic meaning.