▪ I. sloth, n.1
(sləʊθ)
Forms: α. 2 slauðe, 3–5 slauþe, 5 slaw(e)th(e, slauth (6 slaughte). β. 3 slouhðe, 4 slouȝte, slougthe, 5 sloughe, slought. γ. 4–5 slouþe, 4–6 slouthe, 4–6 slouth; 4 s(c)lowþe, 4–5 slowthe, 5, 7 slowth. δ. 6–8 sloath. ε. 5 slothe, 6– sloth.
[Early ME. slāwð(e, slōwð(e, directly formed on slāw, slōw slow a. in place of OE. slǽwð sleuth n.1]
1. Physical or mental inactivity; disinclination to action, exertion, or labour; sluggishness, idleness, indolence, laziness.
| α c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 19 Þe licome luuað muchele slauðe and muchele etinge. c 1205 Lay. 27039 Stið imodede men & swifte, slauþe bidæled. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B 178 For fele fautez may a freke forfete his blysse,..þen for slauþe one. a 1400–50 Alexander 4293 Surfet, surquidry, & slawth. |
| β a 1225 Ancr. R. 144 Heo wule scheken of hire slep of vuel slouhðe. c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 200 Oure owene necligence & slouȝte. 1437 Libel Eng. Policy in Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 187 Nowe here be ware..That for sloughe and for rach[l]eshede [etc.]. c 1489 Caxton Sonnes of Aymon iv. 117 Me semeth that..slougthe is amonge vs. |
| γ 1340–70 Alex. & Dind. 344 We nolle sclepe in no sclowþe til we hem sclain haue. 1390 Gower Conf. I. 15 Ofte is sen that mochel slowthe, Whan men ben drunken of the cuppe, Doth mochel harm. a 1450 Knt. de la Tour (1868) 42 Another ensaumple..of hem that for slouthe lessethe her masse. c 1535 Elyot Educ. Children B j, For Slouth destroyeth the power of nature. 1597 Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxxii. §17 Slouth and fulnesse in peaceable times at home. |
| δ a 1618 Sylvester Paradox agst. Libertie 225 Wks. (Grosart) II. 57 Not one of them will brook his Son in sloath to lurk. 1628 Prynne Censure Cozens 42 Their sloath and lasinesse is so great. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 190 Himself did..Arts ordain; Nor suffer'd Sloath to rust his active Reign. |
| ε 1575–85 Sandys Serm. xvii. 298 To withdraw men..from sloth. 1606 Dekker Seven Deadly Sins Wks. (Grosart) II. 50 This nastie, and loathsome sin of Sloth. 1648 Wilkins Math. Magick i. ii. 8 These arts..admit not either of sloth or wearinesse. 1700 Rowe Amb. Step-Moth. i. i, Sloth and folly Shiver and shrink at sight of toil and hazard. 1790 Burke Fr. Rev. 247 The same lazy but restless disposition, which loves sloth and hates quiet. 1847 J. Yeowell Anc. Brit. Church vii. 64 Ease has a natural tendency to engender sloth. 1867 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1877) I. v. 366 Deposed by his subjects on account of his sloth and luxury. |
b. Personified.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. ii. 69 In al þe seruyse of Slouþe I sese hem to-gedere. 1390 Gower Conf. II. 9 Bot Slowthe mai no profit winne, Bot he mai singe [etc.]. c 1425 Cast. Persev. 898 in Macro Plays, Lechery, Slawth, & Glotonye, to mans flesch ȝe are fendis Fre. 1609 Dekker Warres Wks. (Grosart) IV. 115 Sloth, by reason that he is troubled with the gout, busies himselfe little with State matters. 1769 Gray Ode Installat. 4 Dreaming Sloth of pallid hue. |
c. Comb., as sloth-jaundiced, sloth-loved, sloth-promoting, sloth-shunning adjs.
| 1591 Sylvester Du Bartas i. vi. 868 What can be hard to a sloath-shunning Spirit? 1598 Ibid. ii. ii. ii. Babylon 530 Down in my sloath-lov'd bed again I shrink. 1754 ‘J. Love’ Cricket i. 64 Of sloth-promoting sports, forewarn'd, beware! 1794 Coleridge Lines on Friend Poems (1907) 27 Energic reason and a shaping mind... Sloth-jaundiced all! |
2. Slowness; tardiness.
| c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 313 Þus many men for sich slowþe of sharp reprouyng synnen meche. c 1386 Chaucer 2nd Nun's T. 258 If it so be thou wolt with-outen slouthe Bileue aright. 1451 J. Capgrave Life St. Aug. 21 Augustin be-gan to accuse him-self sor..of þe slauth of his returne to God. 1628 Ford Lover's Mel. v. i, Wherefore drop thy words in such a sloth? 1729 G. Shelvocke Artillery v. 379 [To] fill all his..Fuzes or Trains of Communication with a Composition whose Sloth he has been assured of. 1815 Jefferson Writ. (1830) IV. 265 From sloth of proceedings, an embargo was permitted to run through the winter. |
3. As a ‘proper term’, by later writers taken to mean: A company of bears (or erroneously, boars).
| c 1452 in Trans. Philol. Soc. (1909) iii. 52 A Slouthe of Beerys. Ibid. 53 A slothe of bayris. c 1470 Hors, Shepe, & G. (Roxb.) 31 A slouth of beres. [Cf. sleuth n.1 1 b.] 1616 Bullokar Eng. Exp., Slowth, a heard or company of wild Boares together. 1688 Holme Armoury ii. 132/1 The Proper terms given to Beasts when they are in Companyes... Beares, a Slowth. 1801 Strutt Sports & Past. 17 A sloth of bears. |
4. An edentate arboreal mammal of a sluggish nature, inhabiting tropical parts of Central and South America.
Two genera of sloths are recognized, viz. Bradypus, with three toes on the fore-feet, and Cholœpus with only two.
| 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage 704 note, The Spaniards call it..the light dog. The Portugals Sloth. The Indians, Hay. 1681 Grew Musæum i. ii. i. 11 The Sloath... An Animal of so slow a motion, that he will be three or four days, at least, in climbing up and coming down a Tree. 1699 Wafer Voy. (1729) 401 The Sloath. Is a very slow-paced Animal, taking a whole Day in going fifty Paces. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) IV. 343 Of the sloth there are two different kinds, distinguished from each other by their claws. 1834 M{supc}Murtrie Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 93 The Sloths have cylindrical molars, and sharp canini longer than those molars. 1894–5 Lydekker Roy. Nat. Hist. III. 207 Sloths are mainly nocturnal; and in their usual attitude they hang suspended back downwards. |
| fig. 1826 Hood Last Man 160, I..never was one of the sloths. 1852 H. Rogers Eclipse of Faith (1864) 140 Man has been gradually crawling up, a very Sloth in ‘progress’, from the lowest Fetichism and Polytheism. |
b. Applied, usually with distinguishing epithets, to other animals, as the sloth-bear, the koala or koolah, the slow lori or lemur, and the mylodon or megatherium.
See also ground sloth s.v. ground n. 18 b.
| (a) 1790 Shaw Naturalist's Misc. II. pl. 58 The Ursine Bradypus, or Ursiform Sloth. 1793 Pennant Synop. Quadr. (ed. 3) II. 243 Ursiform Sloth with a long and strong nose, truncated at the end. 1800 Shaw Gen. Zool. I. i. 160 The Ursine Sloth is about the size of a Bear. 1827 Griffith Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. II. 238 The Ursus Labiatus, placed erroneously by Pennant and others among the Sloths, under the name of the Ursine Sloth. |
| (b) 1813–27 [see koala]. a 1862 J. G. Wood Illustr. Nat. Hist. I. 468 The name of Australian Sloth..has been applied to it [the Koala, Phascolarctos cinereus] because it is able to cling with its feet to the branches after the manner of the sloths. |
| (c) 1827 Griffith Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. I. 229 The Slow Loris, or Sloth of Bengal (Lemur tardigradus, L.). 1903 Lydekker Mostly Mammals 314 The name ‘sloth’ is not infrequently misapplied by travellers to the slow-lemurs of India and the Malay countries, or to their cousins the galagos of Africa. |
| (d) 1842 Owen (title), Description of the Skeleton of an Extinct Gigantic Sloth, Mylodon robustus. Ibid. 147 The osseous frame-work of the gigantic extinct Sloths. |
c. A species of Protozoa (see quot.).
| 1859 P. H. Gosse Evenings Microscope (1877) 392 Two more species of this extensive genus [Euglena]..have received the appellations of the Pear (E. pyrum) and the Sloth (E. deses.) |
5. Special combs.: sloth-animalcule (see quots.); sloth-bear, an Indian species of bear (Melursus labiatus or ursinus); sloth-monkey, the slow loris or lemur; sloth-tree, the South American trumpet-tree (Cecropia peltata), whose leaves are eaten by the sloth.
| 1871 Carpenter's Zool. II. 230 A number of minute creatures, well known to microscopic observers as *Sloth or Bear-Animalcules. 1889 Geddes & Thomson Evolution of Sex vi. §5. 72 The degenerate water-bears or sloth-animalcules (Tardigrada). |
| 1835 Penny Cycl. IV. 90/2 Labiated Bear, or *Sloth Bear. a 1862 J. G. Wood Illustr. Nat. Hist. I. 407 The Aswail, or Sloth Bear. 1894 Lydekker Roy. Nat. Hist. II. 26 The sloth-bear may be regarded as one of the most characteristic..mammals of India. |
| 1891 Cent. Dict. s.v., *Sloth-monkey. 1905 A. R. Wallace My Life I. xx. 324 The two species of Sloth-monkeys (pithecia) are found. |
| 1885 A. Brassey Trades 29 Among them was the *sloth tree (Cecropia), all arms and legs. |
▪ II. † sloth, n.2 Obs.
Also slothe.
[app. an alteration of slogh slough n.1 The examples are E. Anglian.]
A miry or muddy place; a slough.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 460/1 Slothe, where fowle water stondythe, lacuna. Ibid., Slothe, where swyne or oþer bestys han dwellyd, volutabrum. 1447 O. Bokenham Seyntys (Roxb.) 125 But thi goddys..Or ben of bras..Or ellys of stonys wych in a sloth to laye Wer bettyr to skepyn from the foul weye. |
▪ III. † sloth, a. Obs. rare.
Also 5 slouth(e, slought.
[f. sloth n.1 Cf. sleuth a.1]
Slothful, slow.
| 1412–20 Lydg. Chron. Troy i. 3646 Of þe future slouth and necligent. c 1450 Cov. Myst. (Shaks. Soc.) 367 A! ȝe fonnys and slought of herte For to beleve in holy Scrypture. 1549 Latimer 2nd Serm. bef. Edw. VI (Arb.) 48 God is a good God,..and very sloth to reuenge hys blasphemie. 1605 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iii. iii. Law 138 What? are ye growne so sloth? |
▪ IV. sloth, v. Now rare.
(sləʊθ)
Forms: α. 5 slawth. β. 4–5 slowth (5 slowȝth), 4–6 slouthe, 7– sloth.
[f. sloth n.1 Cf. sleuth v.1]
† 1. trans. To allow to slip through slothfulness or delay; to neglect. Obs.
| 1390 Gower Conf. II. 2 Som time he slowtheth in a day That he nevere after gete mai. 1455 Rolls of Parlt. V. 286/2 Diverses matiers..have be slowthed and throwen into grete..omission. 1477 Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 22 Slouthe nor delay not that thou must nedely execute. 1500 Will of Catelyn (Somerset Ho.) My tithes necligently forgoten or slowthed. 1708 M. Bruce Lect. 13, I do not bid you cast away your Callings nor Sloth them neither. |
† b. To waste, pass away (time) in idleness.
| 1523 State P., Hen. VIII, VI. 171 Whiche thinges must nedes geve the more occasion to thEmperour not to slouthe any time that may be taken for avauncement of this enterprise. 1676 Bunyan Strait Gate 69 The most of professors are for imbezzeling, mispending and slothing away their time. |
2. intr. To be or become indolent or lazy.
| 1390 Gower Conf. II. 116 Yit ne wol he noght travaile.., Bot slowtheth under such a drede. c 1440 Jacob's Well 281 Þat þou schalt noȝt dullyn and slawthyn in þi labour of þi prayers. 1888 Doughty Arabia Deserta I. 279 Strenuous solitary men, whose unquiet mettle moves them from slothing in the tent's shadow to prowl as the wolf in the wilderness. |
Hence ˈslothing vbl. n.
| c 1690 Jas. Fraser in Wodrow Sel. Biogr. (1847) II. 239 Mispending of time, excess in lawful comforts, slothing of private duties. |