sluggish
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈslʌɡɪʃ/
rhymes: -ʌɡɪʃ
Forms: form: sluggisher
form: more sluggish
form: sluggishest
form: most sluggish
Etymology: From slug + -ish.
Senses: examples: text: a sluggish man
text: [I]f he leaves the School poſſeſs'd of a ſluggiſh indolent Diſpoſition, and of Learning rather forc'd upon him than choſen, it is probable he will forget what he brought thence; but if he be active, emulous and aſpiring, he will certainly find Time for Reading and Thinking; for tho' it be a homely, it is a true Saying, that where there is a Will, there is a Way.
ref: 1724, Pharmacopolæ Justificati: Or, Apothecaries Vindicated from the Imputation of Ignorance. […], London: […] J. Roberts, […], →OCLC, page 6:
text: And the sluggish land slumbers in utter neglect.
ref: c. 1874, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ovid in Exile:
text: He helps us to understand the insignificant points which mark the rapid undercurrents of the seemingly sluggish soul of Khalid.
ref: 1910 January 12, Ameen Rihani, “On the Wharf of Enchantment”, in The Book of Khalid, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published October 1911, →OCLC, book the first (In the Exchange), page 34:
synonyms: word: lazy
word: fainéant
word: bone-idle
word: idle
word: indolent
word: inert
word: lackadaisical
word: lither
word: slothful
word: work-shy
word: sluggish
word: swear
word: torpid
glosses: Habitually idle and lazy; slothful; dull; inactive
examples: text: Vp thou tame River, vvake; / And from the liquid limbes this ſlumber ſhake: / Thou drovvn'st thy ſelfe in inofficious ſleepe; / And theſe thy ſluggiſh vvaters ſeeme to creepe, / Rather than flovv.
ref: 1604 March 25 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), B[en] Jon[son], “The Pegme at Fen-church”, in B. Jon: His Part of King James His Royall and Magnificent Entertainement through His Honorable Cittie of London, Thurseday the 15. of March. 1603. […], London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] [and George Eld] for Edward Blount, published 1604, →OCLC, signature B3, verso:
text: We float upon a sluggish stream, / We ride no rapids mad, / While life is all a tempered dream / And every joy half sad.
ref: 1913, Paul Laurence Dunbar, At Sunset Time:
text: The head of the North Tyne is reached at Deadwater, 36 miles from Hexham. The river has its source just on the English side of the Border, at the foot of Peel Fell, the most westerly spur of the Cheviots. At first it is a sluggish stream (hence the name Deadwater) but begins to flow more swiftly before it reaches Kielder.
ref: 1955 September, H. A. Vallance, “The Border Counties Line”, in Railway Magazine, page 594:
text: [T]he stock of capital is necessarily a sluggish time series, while output is capable of making wide swings in short intervals[.]
ref: 1970, Robert M. Solow, Growth Theory: An Exposition, Oxford University Press, page 3:
synonyms: word: crawling
word: languid
word: languorous
word: draggy
word: creeping
word: dreich
word: gastropodous
word: glacial
word: heavy-footed
word: inching
word: inert
word: labored
word: leaden
word: lead-footed
word: lethargic
word: low-speed
word: lumbering
word: plodding
word: pokey
word: ponderous
word: slothlike
word: slow
word: slow as a snail
word: slow as Christmas
word: slow as molasses
word: slow as molasses in January
word: slowfooted
word: sluggish
word: stately
word: steady
word: subglacial
word: sullen
word: tardigrade
word: tedious
word: testudineous
word: torpid
word: unspeedy
antonyms: nimble
glosses: Slow; having little motion.
examples: text: Matter, being impotent, sluggish, and inactive, hath no power to stir or move itself.
ref: 1695, John Woodward, An Essay toward a Natural History of the Earth and Terrestrial Bodies:
glosses: Having no power to move oneself or itself; inert.
synonyms: word: addlebrained
word: addlepated
word: airheaded
word: bee-brained
word: beef-witted
word: beefheaded
word: beetle-headed
word: birdbrained
word: blockheaded
word: Boeotian
word: boneheaded
word: boofheaded
word: brainless
word: bubbleheaded
word: buffle-headed
word: bullet-headed
word: cerebrally challenged
word: childish
word: chowderheaded
word: chuckleheaded
word: crackbrained
word: cretinous
word: dense
word: dented
word: dim-bulb
word: dim-headed
word: dim-witted
word: dim
word: doltish
word: dopey
word: dozy
word: drowsy
word: dull-headed
word: dull-minded
word: dull-witted
word: dull
word: dumber than a box of rocks
word: dumb
word: dunderheaded
word: empty-headed
word: fatheaded
word: feeble-minded
word: flea-brained
word: foolish
word: fuzzy-headed
word: fuzzy-minded
word: half-brained
word: half-witted
word: hammer-headed
word: idiotic
word: imbecilic
word: inane
word: insipid
word: intellectually challenged
word: knuckleheaded
word: lamebrained
word: lowbrow
word: lumpish
word: lunkheaded
word: mentally challenged
word: mentally retarded
word: mindless
word: monosynaptic
word: moronic
word: muttonheaded
word: nitwitted
word: numbskulled
word: oafish
word: obtuse
word: peabrained
word: pratty
word: pudding-headed
word: puerile
word: purblind
word: quarter-witted
word: retarded
word: rockheaded
word: sharp as a bowling ball
word: sheep-headed
word: simple
word: slow-witted
word: slow
word: smooth-brained
word: stolid
word: stupid
word: thick-skulled
word: thickheaded
word: thickwitted
word: thick
word: unapprehensive
word: unclever
word: unintelligent
word: unsmart
word: vacant
word: vacuous
word: witless
word: wooden-headed
word: wool-headed
word: woolly-headed
word: woolly-minded
word: dumb as a bag of hammers
word: dumb as a box of rocks
word: dumb as a doorknob
word: dumb as an ox
word: dumb as a post
word: dumb as a sack of hammers
word: dumb as dirt
word: dumber than a rock
word: not the sharpest crayon in the box
word: not the sharpest knife in the drawer
word: not the sharpest tool in the shed
word: thick as a brick
word: thick as a plank
word: thick as champ
word: thick as mince
word: thick as two short planks
word: thick as a whale omelette
word: ass-brained
word: fuckwitted
word: shit-for-brains
word: thick as pig shit
glosses: Characteristic of a sluggard; dull; stupid; tame; simple.
examples: text: Inflation has been rising despite a sluggish economy.
text: After an initial bounce back, the post-Covid Chinese economy has turned sluggish. Its property market - once a key driver of growth - is now mired in a credit crisis, exacerbating a domestic "debt bomb" that has ballooned from years of borrowing by local government and state-owned enterprises.
ref: 2023 November 15, Tessa Wong, “Xi Jinping arrives in US as his Chinese Dream sputters”, in BBC:
glosses: Exhibiting economic decline, inactivity, slow, or subnormal growth.
Derived terms: sluggishly
sluggishness
sluggish schizophrenia
unsluggish