slowness

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Quality of taking a relatively long time

Nouns

1. slowness, languor, inactivity; leisureliness; retardation; slackening; delay, lateness; walk, stroll, saunter, snail's pace, jog-trot, dogtrot; slow motion, slowdown. Informal, slowup.

2. dullness, flatness, monotony, boredom. See weariness.

3. laggard, lingerer, loiterer, sluggard, tortoise, plodder; snail; dawdler. Slang, slowpoke.

Verbs

1. move slowly, creep, crawl, lag, linger, loiter, straggle, stroll, saunter, walk, plod, trudge, inch, stump along, lumber; trail, drag; dawdle, worm one's way, steal along; toddle, waddle, slouch, shuffle, halt, hobble, limp, shamble; flag, falter, totter, stagger; take one's time; hang fire (see lateness). Informal, take one's own sweet time, laze along. Slang, get no place fast, mosey along, hold one's horses.

2. slow, retard, relax; slacken, check, moderate, rein in, fall behind, slow down, curb; reef; strike, shorten, or take in sail; set back; put on the drag, brake, apply the brake; clip the wings; reduce the speed; slacken speed or one's pace; lose ground; slack off or down; step down.

Adjectives — slow, slack; tardy; dilatory, inactive, gentle, easy, leisurely; deliberate, gradual; dull, uninteresting; languid, sluggish, snail- or slow-paced, snaillike, creeping; slow but sure. Informal, slow as molasses.

Adverbs — slowly, leisurely; at half speed, under easy sail; at a snail's pace; in slow time; in slow motion; gradually, by degrees or inches, step by step, drop by drop, inch by inch, bit by bit, little by little.

Phrases — festina lente (hasten slowly).

Quotations — Wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast (Shakespeare), Slow and steady wins the race (Aesop), The march of the human mind is slow (Edmund Burke), Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceedingly small (Friedrich von Logau), Jupiter is slow looking into his notebook, but he always looks (Zenobius), Justice is not to be taken by storm. She is to be wooed by slow advances (Benjamin N. Cardozo).

Antonyms, see velocity, haste.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

1. [Dullness]

Syn. sluggishness, languidness, listlessness, apathy, lethargy, drowsiness; see also indifference 1 , stupidity 1 .

2. [Weakness]

Syn. inactivity, feebleness, impotence; see weakness 1 .