Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Slow

Slow (slō), obs. imp. of Slee, to slay. Slew. Chaucer.

Slow (slō), a. [Compar. Slower; superl. Slowest.] [OE. slow, slaw, AS. slāw; akin to OS. slēu blunt, dull, D. sleeuw, slee, sour, OHG. slēo blunt, dull, Icel. slōr, slær, Dan. slöv, Sw. slö. 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.

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. Milton.

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. Dryden.

4. Not hasty; not precipitate; acting with deliberation; tardy; inactive.

He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding. Prov. xiv. 29.

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.] Dickens. Thackeray.

☞ 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 (Zoöl.), 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.

Syn. — 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.

Slow, adv. Slowly.

Let him have time to mark how slow time goes In time of sorrow. Shak.

Slow, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Slowed; p. pr. & vb. n. Slowing.] To render slow; to slacken the speed of; to retard; to delay; as, to slow a steamer. Shak.

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

Slow, n. A moth. [Obs.] Rom. of R.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.