# sloth
## English
### Alternative forms

* sleuth (obsolete except for a group of bears)
* sloath, slowth (obsolete)

### Etymology

From Middle English slouthe, slewthe (“laziness”), from Old English slǣwþ (“sloth, indolence, laziness, inertness, torpor”), from Proto-West Germanic *slaiwiþu, from Proto-Germanic *slaiwiþō (“slowness, lateness”), equivalent to slow +‎ -th. Cognate with Scots sleuth (“sloth, slowness”).

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /sləʊθ/, /slɒθ/
** Audio (UK):(file)
** Audio (UK):(file)
* (General American) IPA: /slɔθ/
* (cot–caught merger) IPA: /slɑθ/
* (New Zealand) IPA: /slɒθ/
* Rhymes: -əʊθ, -ɒθ

### Noun

sloth (countable and uncountable, plural sloths)
* (uncountable) Laziness; slowness in the mindset; disinclination to action or labour.
** 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 787–792:Who having ſpilt much blood, and don much waſte / Subduing Nations, and achievd thereby / Fame in the World, high titles, and rich prey, / Shall change thir courſe to pleaſure, eaſe, and ſloth, / Surfet, and luſt, till wantonneſs and pride / Raiſe out of friendſhip hoſtil deeds in Peace.
** 1758, Benjamin Franklin, Preliminary Address to the Pennsylvania Almanac:Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labour wears.
** 1953 April, “Arrears of Station Maintenance”, in Railway Magazine, page 217:Mr. Elliot's frank statement that "sloth and untidiness are indefensible" is a sign that the task will be tackled with vigour.
* (countable) Any animal in the suborder Folivora.
** (especially) Any herbivorous, arboreal South American mammal of the families Choloepodidae and Bradypodidae, noted for its slowness and inactivity.
** (paleontology) Any of the extinct group of ground sloths.
* (collective, rare, countable) A group of bears.

#### Usage notes

* Sloth is one of the seven deadly sins.

#### Synonyms

* (animal): tardigrade (obsolete)

#### Antonyms

* diligence

#### Hyponyms

* (animal): two-toed sloth, three-toed sloth, Australian sloth, ground sloth, pale-throated sloth

#### Derived terms

* forsloth
* ground sloth
* native sloth
* sloth animalcule
* sloth bear
* slothen
* slothful
* sloth monkey
* tree sloth

#### Related terms

* slowth

#### Translations
### Verb

sloth (third-person singular simple present sloths, present participle slothing, simple past and past participle slothed)
* (obsolete, intransitive, transitive) To be idle; to idle (away time).
** 1676, John Bunyan, The Strait Gate, or, Great Difficulty of Going to Heaven‎, London: Francis Smith, page 69:[…] the most of professors are for imbezzeling, mispending and slothing away their time, their talents, their opportunities to do good in […]
** 1677, Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid‎, London: T. Passinger, page 2:That you endeavour carefully to please your Lady, Master or Mistress, be faithful, diligent and submissive to them, encline not to sloth or laze in bed, but rise early in a morning.

### Further reading

* “sloth”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “sloth”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

### Anagrams

* Holts, Loths, holts, loths