The work is an impression of an engraving on paper using gray-brown ink. The dimensions of the engraving are 214 × 296 mm. In the lower left corner, authorship is indicated – “P. brueghel. Inuentor”, in the lower right corner is the date of the imprint and the name of the publisher – “H. Cock. excude cum gratia et priuilegio. 1558”.
There are other prints including mirror images.
The composition of the engraving is simply saturated with the symbols of laziness – sleeping idlers, slowly creeping animals, snails, scorpions, slugs, devils and chimeras.
In the center of the composition there is a woman lying on a donkey, below her signature – “Laziness”, that is, it is a personification of vice. Pillow woman supports the devil, which symbolizes the Dutch proverb “Laziness – a pillow of the devil.”
Near the clock without arrows a giant is depicted that uses a water mill as a latrine – this is an illustration of an obscene saying – “He is too lazy to get to a latrine”. Dice refers to the killing time in the tavern, laziness reminds and watches without arrows – the rest of the motives are mysterious.
Flemish proverbs by Peter Brueghel 
Country lazy by Peter Brueghel 
The Adoration of the Magi in the Winter Landscape by Peter Brueghel 
Allegory of taste by Peter Brueghel 
Big fish eat small by Peter Brueghel 
Twelve Proverbs by Peter Brueghel 
The Tower of Babel by Peter Brueghel 
Suicide of Saul by Peter Brueghel