SLOW • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Slow

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/sloʊ/ Listen

adjective

Slow adj. (compar. slower; superl. slowest)

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.

2.

Not happening in a short time; gradual; late. "These changes in the heavens, though slow, produced Like change on sea and land, sidereal blast."

3.

Not ready; not prompt or quick; dilatory; sluggish; as, slow of speech, and slow of tongue. "Fixed on defense, the Trojans are not slow To guard their shore from an expected foe."

4.

Not hasty; not precipitate; acting with deliberation; tardy; inactive. "He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding."

5.

Behind in time; indicating a time earlier than the true time; as, the clock or watch is slow.

6.

Not advancing or improving rapidly; as, the slow growth of arts and sciences.

7.

Heavy in wit; not alert, prompt, or spirited; wearisome; dull. (Colloq.) 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.

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.

Synonyms: Dilatory; late; lingering; tardy; sluggish; dull; inactive. 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.

verb

Slow v. t. (past & past part. slowed; pres. part. slowing) To render slow; to slacken the speed of; to retard; to delay; as, to slow a steamer.

Slow v. i. To go slower; often with up; as, the train slowed up before crossing the bridge.

Slow past obs. Slew.

adverb

Slow adv. Slowly. "Let him have time to mark how slow time goes In time of sorrow."

noun

Slow n. A moth. (Obs.)

See images of 'Slow'

Etymology of 'Slow'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Slow" Quotes from Famous Books

... best-dressed youth in England; but he was a determined young hero, not gifted with too sensitive nerves, and was a votary of the great theory that all in life was an affair of will, and that endowed with sufficient energy he might marry whom he liked. He accounted for his slow advance in London by the inimical presence of Mrs. Neuchatel, who he felt, or fancied, did not sympathise with him; while, on the contrary, he got on very well with the father, and so he was determined to seize the present opportunity. The mother was absent, and he himself in a commanding position, ...

— Endymion • Benjamin Disraeli

... Indian, from the other's altered tone and manner, perceived his advantage, and was not slow to use it. ...

— The Lost Hunter - A Tale of Early Times • John Turvill Adams

... said Fascination to himself. 'Slow, you may be; sure, you are!' This he twice or thrice repeated with much complacency, as he again dispersed the legs of the Turkish ...

— Our Mutual Friend • Charles Dickens

... "Oberon, great Fairy King, Content thee, I am no such thing: I am a Wasp, behold my sting!" At which the Fairy started; When soon away the Wasp doth go, Poor wretch was never frighted so; He thought his wings were much too slow, O'erjoyed they so ...

— The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-night's Dream' • Compiled by Frank Sidgwick

... Confederate armies together served to draw the Union armies apart. Just as we have seen Pope called away from Fort Pillow on the eve of an attack that must have resulted in its capture, and taken in haste to swell the slow march of Halleck's army before Corinth, so now, when for a full month Corinth had been abandoned by the Confederates, Halleck's forces were being broken up and dispersed to all four of the winds, save ...

— History of the Nineteenth Army Corps • Richard Biddle Irwin

Copyright © 2025 Free-Translator.com