SLOTH

sloth, laziness, acedia

(noun) apathy and inactivity in the practice of virtue (personified as one of the deadly sins)

sloth, tree sloth

(noun) any of several slow-moving arboreal mammals of South America and Central America; they hang from branches back downward and feed on leaves and fruits

sloth, slothfulness

(noun) a disinclination to work or exert yourself

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Noun

sloth (countable and uncountable, plural sloths)

(uncountable) Laziness; slowness in the mindset; disinclination to action or labour.

(countable) A herbivorous, arboreal South American mammal of the families Megalonychidae and Bradypodidae, noted for its slowness and inactivity.

(rare) A collective term for a group of bears.

Usage notes

Sloth is one of the seven deadly sins.

Hyponyms

• (animal): two-toed sloth, three-toed sloth

Verb

sloth (third-person singular simple present sloths, present participle slothing, simple past and past participle slothed)

(obsolete, intransitive, transitive) To be idle; to idle (away time).

Anagrams

• Loths, holts, loths

Source: Wiktionary


Sloth, n. Etym: [OE. slouthe, sleuthe, AS. sl, fr. slaw slow. See Slow.]

1. Slowness; tardiness. These cardinals trifle with me; I abhor This dilatory sloth and tricks of Rome. Shak.

2. Disinclination to action or labor; sluggishness; laziness; idleness. [They] change their course to pleasure, ease, and sloth. Milton. Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears. Franklin.

3. (Zoöl.)

Definition: Any one of several species of arboreal edentates constituting the family Bradypodidæ, and the suborder Tardigrada. They have long exserted limbs and long prehensile claws. Both jaws are furnished with teeth (see Illust. of Edentata), and the ears and tail are rudimentary. They inhabit South and Central America and Mexico.

Note: The three-toed sloths belong to the genera Bradypus and Arctopithecus, of which several species have been described. They have three toes on each foot. The best-known species are collared sloth (Bradypus tridactylus), and the ai (Arctopitheus ai). The two- toed sloths, consisting the genus Cholopus, have two toes on each fore foot and three on each hind foot. The best-known is the unau (Cholopus didactylus) of South America. See Unau. Another species (C. Hoffmanni) inhabits Central America. Various large extinct terrestrial edentates, such as Megatherium and Mylodon, are often called sloths. Australian, or Native sloth (Zoöl.), the koala.

– Sloth animalcule (Zoöl.), a tardigrade.

– Sloth bear (Zoöl.), a black or brown long-haired bear (Melursus ursinus, or labiatus), native of India and Ceylon; -- called also aswail, labiated bear, and jungle bear. It is easily tamed and can be taught many tricks.

– Sloth monkey (Zoöl.), a loris.

Sloth, v. i.

Definition: To be idle. [Obs.] Gower.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

29 March 2024

FAULTFINDING

(adjective) tending to make moral judgments or judgments based on personal opinions; “a counselor tries not to be faultfinding”


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