lossy

lossy
    adj 1: characterized by or causing dissipation of energy [ant:
           {lossless}]
    

lossy
 adj.

   [Usenet]

   1. Said of people, this indicates a poor memory, usually short-term.
   This usage is analogical to the same term applied to data compression
   and analysis. "He's very lossy." means that you can't rely on him to
   accurately remember recent experiences or conversations, or requests.
   Not to be confused with a `loser', which is a person who is in a
   continual state of lossiness, as in sense 2 (see below).

   2. Said of an attitude or a situation, this indicates a general
   downturn in emotions, lack of success in attempted endeavors, etc. Eg,
   "I'm having a lossy day today." means that the speaker has `lost' or
   is `losing' in all of their activities, and that this is causing some
   increase in negative emotions.
    

lossy

   <algorithm> A term describing a data {compression} {algorithm}
   which actually reduces the amount of information in the data,
   rather than just the number of bits used to represent that
   information.  The lost information is usually removed because
   it is subjectively less important to the quality of the data
   (usually an {image} or {sound}) or because it can be recovered
   reasonably by {interpolation} from the remaining data.

   {MPEG} and {JPEG} are examples of lossy compression
   techniques.

   Opposite: {lossless}.

   (1995-03-29)