slow
from
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
slow
adv 1: without speed (`slow' is sometimes used informally for
`slowly'); "he spoke slowly"; "go easy here--the road is
slippery"; "glaciers move tardily"; "please go slow so I
can see the sights" [syn: {slowly}, {slow}, {easy},
{tardily}] [ant: {apace}, {chop-chop}, {quickly},
{rapidly}, {speedily}]
2: of timepieces; "the clock is almost an hour slow"; "my watch
is running behind" [syn: {behind}, {slow}]
adj 1: not moving quickly; taking a comparatively long time; "a
slow walker"; "the slow lane of traffic"; "her steps were
slow"; "he was slow in reacting to the news"; "slow but
steady growth" [ant: {fast}]
2: at a slow tempo; "the band played a slow waltz" [ant: {fast}]
3: slow to learn or understand; lacking intellectual acuity; "so
dense he never understands anything I say to him"; "never met
anyone quite so dim"; "although dull at classical learning,
at mathematics he was uncommonly quick"- Thackeray; "dumb
officials make some really dumb decisions"; "he was either
normally stupid or being deliberately obtuse"; "worked with
the slow students" [syn: {dense}, {dim}, {dull}, {dumb},
{obtuse}, {slow}]
4: (used of timepieces) indicating a time earlier than the
correct time; "the clock is slow" [ant: {fast}]
5: so lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness; "a
boring evening with uninteresting people"; "the deadening
effect of some routine tasks"; "a dull play"; "his competent
but dull performance"; "a ho-hum speaker who couldn't capture
their attention"; "what an irksome task the writing of long
letters is"- Edmund Burke; "tedious days on the train"; "the
tiresome chirping of a cricket"- Mark Twain; "other people's
dreams are dreadfully wearisome" [syn: {boring}, {deadening},
{dull}, {ho-hum}, {irksome}, {slow}, {tedious}, {tiresome},
{wearisome}]
6: (of business) not active or brisk; "business is dull (or
slow)"; "a sluggish market" [syn: {dull}, {slow}, {sluggish}]
v 1: lose velocity; move more slowly; "The car decelerated"
[syn: {decelerate}, {slow}, {slow down}, {slow up},
{retard}] [ant: {accelerate}, {quicken}, {speed}, {speed
up}]
2: become slow or slower; "Production slowed" [syn: {slow},
{slow down}, {slow up}, {slack}, {slacken}]
3: cause to proceed more slowly; "The illness slowed him down"
[syn: {slow}, {slow down}, {slow up}]
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Slow \Slow\ (sl[=o]), a. [Compar. {Slower} (sl[=o]"[~e]r);
superl. {Slowest}.] [OE. slow, slaw, AS. sl[=a]w; akin to OS.
sl[=e]u blunt, dull, D. sleeuw, slee, sour, OHG. sl[=e]o
blunt, dull, Icel. sl[=o]r, sl[ae]r, Dan. sl["o]v, Sw.
sl["o]. Cf. {Sloe}, and {Sloth}.]
1. Moving a short space in a relatively long time; not swift;
not quick in motion; not rapid; moderate; deliberate; as,
a slow stream; a slow motion.
[1913 Webster]
2. Not happening in a short time; gradual; late.
[1913 Webster]
These changes in the heavens, though slow, produced
Like change on sea and land, sidereal blast.
--Milton.
[1913 Webster]
3. Not ready; not prompt or quick; dilatory; sluggish; as,
slow of speech, and slow of tongue.
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Fixed on defense, the Trojans are not slow
To guard their shore from an expected foe. --Dryden.
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4. Not hasty; not precipitate; acting with deliberation;
tardy; inactive.
[1913 Webster]
He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding.
--Prov. xiv.
29.
[1913 Webster]
5. Behind in time; indicating a time earlier than the true
time; as, the clock or watch is slow.
[1913 Webster]
6. Not advancing or improving rapidly; as, the slow growth of
arts and sciences.
[1913 Webster]
7. Heavy in wit; not alert, prompt, or spirited; wearisome;
dull. [Colloq.] --Dickens. Thackeray.
[1913 Webster]
Note: Slow is often used in the formation of compounds for
the most part self-explaining; as, slow-gaited,
slow-paced, slow-sighted, slow-winged, and the like.
[1913 Webster]
{Slow coach}, a slow person. See def.7, above. [Colloq.]
{Slow lemur}, or {Slow loris} (Zool.), an East Indian
nocturnal lemurine animal ({Nycticebus tardigradus}) about
the size of a small cat; -- so called from its slow and
deliberate movements. It has very large round eyes and is
without a tail. Called also {bashful Billy}.
{Slow match}. See under {Match}.
[1913 Webster]
Syn: Dilatory; late; lingering; tardy; sluggish; dull;
inactive.
Usage: {Slow}, {Tardy}, {Dilatory}. Slow is the wider term,
denoting either a want of rapid motion or inertness of
intellect. Dilatory signifies a proneness to defer, a
habit of delaying the performance of what we know must
be done. Tardy denotes the habit of being behind hand;
as, tardy in making up one's acounts.
[1913 Webster]
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
383 Moby Thesaurus words for "slow":
Boeotian, Micawberish, after time, almost unheard-of, ambling,
apathetic, arid, arrest, arrested, averse, back, backpedal,
backward, backwater, balking, balky, barren, behind,
behind the times, behind time, behindhand, belated, belatedly,
benumbed, blah, blank, blase, blocked, blockish, bloodless, blunt,
blunt-witted, bone-lazy, bored, boring, bovine, brake, cadging,
carefully, cautious, cautiously, characterless, check, circumspect,
circumspectly, claudicant, clip the wings, cloddish, cold,
colorless, conservative, crawling, crawlingly, creeping,
creeping like snail, creepingly, curb, dallying, dawdling, dead,
dead-and-alive, debilitated, decelerate, deep into, delay, delayed,
delayed-action, delaying, deliberate, deliberately, dense, detain,
detained, dilatorily, dilatory, dillydallying, dim, dim-witted,
disinclined, dismal, do-nothing, doless, doltish, dopey, dormant,
dragging, draggy, draw rein, drearisome, dreary, dronish, drony,
droopy, drugged, dry, dryasdust, dull, dull of mind, dull-headed,
dull-pated, dull-witted, dumb, dunch, dusty, ease off, ease up,
easily, easy, easygoing, effete, elephantine, empty, enervated,
ergophobic, etiolated, exanimate, fade, faineant, faltering,
falteringly, far on, fat-witted, feebleminded, flagging, flat,
foot-dragging, gentle, gently, good-for-nothing, gradual,
gross-headed, grudging, half-witted, halting, haltingly, hasteless,
heavy, hebetudinous, held up, hesitant, ho-hum, hobbled, hobbling,
hold back, hold in check, hold up, hollow, humdrum, hung up, idle,
idly, imbecile, impede, in a bind, in abeyance, in low gear,
in march time, in slow motion, in slow tempo, inactive, inane,
inanimate, indifferent, indisposed, indolent, indolently, inert,
inexcitable, infrequent, insipid, jaded, jammed, jejune, keep back,
lackadaisical, laggard, lagging, languid, languidly, languorous,
languorously, late, latish, lax, lazy, leaden, leisurely, let down,
let up, lethargic, lifeless, limited, limping, limpingly,
lingering, lingeringly, listless, loath, loitering, loiteringly,
lollygagging, lose ground, lose momentum, lose speed, low-spirited,
lumbering, lumpish, measurable, measured, moderate, moderately,
monotonous, moratory, moribund, moronic, never on time,
nonaggressive, none too soon, not with it, numb, obstruct,
obstructed, obtuse, old-fashioned, old-fogyish, out of date,
out of it, overdue, pale, pallid, parasitic, pedestrian,
perceptible, perfunctory, phlegmatic, plodding, pointless, pokily,
poking, pokingly, poky, ponderous, pooped, procrastinating,
procrastinative, procrastinatory, progressive, quiet, rare, reef,
rein in, relax, relaxed, relaxedly, reluctant, reluctantly, remiss,
renitent, restive, retard, retarded, rusty, sated, sauntering,
scarce, scrounging, seldom met with, seldom seen, set back,
shiftless, shuffling, simple, slack, slack off, slack up, slacken,
sleepy, slothful, slow as death, slow as molasses, slow as slow,
slow down, slow to, slow up, slow-crawling, slow-foot, slow-going,
slow-legged, slow-moving, slow-paced, slow-poky, slow-running,
slow-sailing, slow-stepped, slow-witted, slowly, sluggish,
sluggishly, snail-paced, snaillike, solemn, somnolent, soporific,
sparse, spiritless, sponging, square, staggering, stagnant,
stagnating, stay, steady, sterile, stiff, stodgy, stolid, stopped,
straggling, strolling, stuffy, stultified, stupid, superficial,
supine, take in sail, take it easy, tame, tardily, tardy,
tarryingly, tasteless, tedious, tentative, tentatively, thick,
thick-brained, thick-headed, thick-pated, thick-witted,
thickskulled, throttle down, tiresome, toddling, torpid,
tortoiselike, tottering, trudging, turtlelike, uncommon,
under easy sail, unenterprising, unenthusiastic, uneventful,
unfrequent, unhasty, unhurried, unhurriedly, unimaginative,
unintelligent, uninteresting, unique, unlively, unproductive,
unprogressive, unpunctual, unready, unresponsive, untimely,
unusual, unwilling, unzealous, vapid, vegetable, vegetative,
waddling, wan, wearisome, weary, with agonizing slowness,
with deliberation, wooden, work-shy, world-weary
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