sluggish


Also found in: Thesaurus, Encyclopedia.

slug·gish

 (slŭg′ĭsh)
adj.
1. Displaying little movement or activity; slow; inactive: a sluggish stream; sluggish growth.
2. Lacking alertness, vigor, or energy; inert or indolent.
3. Slow to perform or respond to stimulation.

[Middle English, probably from slugge, lazy person; see slug2.]

slug′gish·ly adv.
slug′gish·ness n.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

sluggish

(ˈslʌɡɪʃ)
adj
1. lacking energy; inactive; slow-moving
2. functioning at below normal rate or level
3. exhibiting poor response to stimulation
ˈsluggishly adv
ˈsluggishness n
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

slug•gish

(ˈslʌg ɪʃ)

adj.
1. indisposed to action or exertion; lazy; indolent.
2. not functioning with full vigor, as bodily organs.
3. slow to act or respond: a sluggish engine.
4. slow or slow-moving, as a stream.
5. slack, as sales.
slug′gish•ly, adv.
slug′gish•ness, n.
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.

sluggish

  • lusk - Means lazy or sluggish.
  • phlegmatic - First meant "abounding in phlegm" and now more commonly means "not easily excited; lacking enthusiasm; dull, sluggish"—supposedly the type of character one has from having an overabundance of phlegm.
  • sulk - A back-formation of sulky, from obsolete sulke, "sluggish."
  • drumble - To move in a slow, sluggish way.
Farlex Trivia Dictionary. © 2012 Farlex, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Adj.1.sluggish - moving slowly; "a sluggish stream"
slow - not moving quickly; taking a comparatively long time; "a slow walker"; "the slow lane of traffic"; "her steps were slow"; "he was slow in reacting to the news"; "slow but steady growth"
2.sluggish - (of business) not active or brisk; "business is dull (or slow)"; "a sluggish market"
business enterprise, commercial enterprise, business - the activity of providing goods and services involving financial and commercial and industrial aspects; "computers are now widely used in business"
inactive - lacking activity; lying idle or unused; "an inactive mine"; "inactive accounts"; "inactive machinery"
3.sluggish - slow and apatheticsluggish - slow and apathetic; "she was fat and inert"; "a sluggish worker"; "a mind grown torpid in old age"
inactive - not active physically or mentally; "illness forced him to live an inactive life"; "dreamy and inactive by nature"
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

sluggish

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

sluggish

adjective
1. Characterized by reduced economic activity:
2. Lacking mental and physical alertness and activity:
Slang: dopey.
3. Resistant to exertion and activity:
Informal: do-nothing.
Idiom: bone lazy.
The American Heritage® Roget's Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Translations
كَسْلان، بَطيء الحَرَكَه
línýmalátný
sløvtræg
heikkohidashidasälyinenhiljainenjähmeä
lomha
silalegur; straumlaus

sluggish

[ˈslʌgɪʃ] ADJ
1. (= indolent) → perezoso, flojo
2. (= slow moving) [river, engine, car] → lento; [business, market, sales] → inactivo; [liver] → perezoso
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

sluggish

[ˈslʌgɪʃ] adj
[movement] → lent(e); [person] → mou(molle)
I feel very sluggish today → Je me sens tout mou aujourd'hui.
[business, sales] → stagnant(e)
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

sluggish

adj (= indolent, also Med) → träge; engine, carlahm, langsam; temperamentphlegmatisch; stepsschwerfällig; riverträge; businessflau; market, stock exchangeflau, lustlos
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

sluggish

[ˈslʌgɪʃ] adj (indolent) → pigro/a, fiacco/a; (slow-moving, river, engine, car) → lento/a; (business, market, sales) → stagnante, fiacco/a
the car is very sluggish → la macchina manca di ripresa
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

slug1

(slag) noun
a kind of animal like a snail.
ˈsluggish adjective
moving slowly; not active or alert. a sluggish river; I always feel rather sluggish in the mornings.
ˈsluggishly adverb
ˈsluggishness noun
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary © 2006-2013 K Dictionaries Ltd.

sluggish

a. flojo-a, inactivo-a, de movimiento lento.
English-Spanish Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012
References in classic literature ?
So much the more reason was there, too, in her determination, in that Holland is the home of fetes; never did sluggish natures manifest more eager energy of the singing and dancing sort than those of the good republicans of the Seven Provinces when amusement was the order of the day.
A clever general, therefore, avoids an army when its spirit is keen, but attacks it when it is sluggish and inclined to return.
His father was a carpenter, and they dwelt in a little old red-brick house, neat and clean, by the side of a sluggish canal.
Perhaps his taciturnity hid a contempt for the human race which had abandoned the great dreams of his youth and now wallowed in sluggish ease; or perhaps these thirty years of revolution had taught him that men are unfit for liberty, and he thought that he had spent his life in the pursuit of that which was not worth the finding.
To use his own phrase, he was "out of sorts." A sluggish reluctance to face change of any kind possessed him.
"There is one thing," I said, to allay the fears I had aroused; "they are the most sluggish things I ever saw crawl.
Below us through the valley crept a river, Cleft round an island where the Lap-men lay; Its sluggish water dragged with slow endeavour The mountain snows away.
The gently sloping beach along which I walked was thickly strewn with strangely shaped, colored shells; some empty, others still housing as varied a multitude of mollusks as ever might have drawn out their sluggish lives along the silent shores of the antediluvian seas of the outer crust.
"Phoebe--Phoebe Pyncheon?--Phoebe?" repeated the guest, with a strange, sluggish, ill-defined utterance.
He was comely in countenance, bulky and strong in person, and in the flower of his age yet inanimate in expression, dull-eyed, heavy-browed, inactive and sluggish in all his motions, and so slow in resolution, that the soubriquet of one of his ancestors was conferred upon him, and he was very generally called Athelstane the Unready.
'tis Ellen!" interrupted the whole body of his sons in a breath; and at that instant she re-appeared to put an end to their different surmises, and to relieve more than one sluggish nature from its unwonted excitement.
She disappeared among the reeds and willows that grew thick along the banks of the deep, sluggish bayou; and she did not come back again.