Adjacent Words

Sluggish definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SLUG'GISH, a.
1. Habitually idle and lazy; slothful; dull; inactive; as a sluggish man.
2.Slow; having little motion; as a sluggish river or stream.
3. Inert; inactive; having no power to move itself. Matter is sluggish and inactive.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: moving slowly; "a sluggish stream" [syn: sluggish, sulky]
2: (of business) not active or brisk; "business is dull (or slow)"; "a sluggish market" [syn: dull, slow, sluggish]
3: slow and apathetic; "she was fat and inert"; "a sluggish worker"; "a mind grown torpid in old age" [syn: inert, sluggish, soggy, torpid]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: 15th century 1. averse to activity or exertion ; indolent; also torpid 2. slow to respond (as to stimulation or treatment) 3. a. markedly slow in movement, flow, or growth b. economically inactive or slow • sluggishly adverb • sluggishness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. inert; inactive; slow-moving; torpid; indolent (a sluggish circulation; a sluggish stream). Derivatives: sluggishly adv. sluggishness n. Etymology: ME f. SLUG(1) or slug (v.): see SLUGGARD

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Sluggish Slug"gish, a. 1. Habitually idle and lazy; slothful; dull; inactive; as, a sluggish man. 2. Slow; having little motion; as, a sluggish stream. 3. Having no power to move one's self or itself; inert. Matter, being impotent, sluggish, and inactive, hath no power to stir or move itself. --Woodward. And the sluggish land slumbers in utter neglect. --Longfellow. 4. Characteristic of a sluggard; dull; stupid; tame; simple. [R.] ``So sluggish a conceit.'' --Milton. Syn: Inert; idle; lazy; slothful; indolent; dronish; slow; dull; drowsy; inactive. See Inert. -- Slug"gish*ly, adv. -- Slug"gish*ness, n.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

You can describe something as sluggish if it moves, works, or reacts much slower than you would like or is normal. The economy remains sluggish... Circulation is much more sluggish in the feet than in the hands. ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Indolent, idle, lazy, slothful, dull, inactive, drowsy, inert, dronish, lumpish, supine, phlegmatic. 2. Slow. 3. Inert, inactive. 4. Dull, tame, stupid, simple.

Moby Thesaurus

Laodicean, Micawberish, Olympian, abeyant, affluent, aloof, ambling, apathetic, backward, benumbed, blah, blase, blunt, blunt-witted, bored, cataleptic, catatonic, cautious, circumspect, claudicant, comatose, confluent, costive, coursing, crawling, creeping, creeping like snail, dallying, dead, debilitated, decurrent, defluent, delaying, deliberate, desensitized, detached, diffluent, dilatory, dillydallying, dim, dim-witted, disinterested, dopey, dormant, down, dragging, draggy, droopy, drugged, dull, dull of mind, dull-headed, dull-pated, dull-witted, easy, easygoing, enervated, exanimate, faltering, fat-witted, flagging, flat, flowing, fluent, fluxional, fluxive, foot-dragging, foul, gentle, gradual, groggy, gross-headed, gulfy, gushing, halting, heartless, heavy, hebetudinous, hobbled, hobbling, hopeless, idle, in a stupor, in abeyance, in suspense, inactive, inanimate, indifferent, indolent, inert, insouciant, jaded, lackadaisical, laggard, lagging, languid, languorous, latent, lax, lazy, leaden, leisurely, lethargic, lifeless, limping, lingering, listless, logy, loitering, lumbering, lumpish, mazy, meandering, moderate, moribund, nonchalant, numb, numbed, obtuse, off, passive, phlegmatic, pluckless, poking, poky, pooped, pouring, procrastinating, procrastinative, procrastinatory, profluent, racing, relaxed, reluctant, remiss, resigned, running, rushing, sated, sauntering, sedentary, serpentine, shuffling, slack, sleeping, sleepy, slothful, slow, slow as death, slow as molasses, slow as slow, slow-crawling, slow-foot, slow-going, slow-legged, slow-moving, slow-paced, slow-poky, slow-running, slow-sailing, slow-stepped, slow-witted, slumbering, slumberous, smoldering, snail-paced, snaillike, somnolent, soporific, spiritless, spunkless, staggering, stagnant, stagnating, standing, static, stiff, stoic, streaming, strolling, stultified, stupefied, stupid, supine, surging, surgy, suspended, tame, tentative, thick-brained, thick-headed, thick-pated, thick-witted, thickskulled, tidal, toddling, torpid, tortoiselike, tottering, trudging, turtlelike, unaroused, uncaring, unconcerned, unhurried, uninterested, vegetable, vegetative, vortical, waddling, wan, weary, withdrawn, wooden, world-weary