sloth

[slawth or especially for 2, slohth]

See more synonyms for sloth on Thesaurus.com

noun

habitual disinclination to exertion; indolence; laziness.
any of several slow-moving, arboreal, tropical American edentates of the family Bradypodidae, having a long, coarse, grayish-brown coat often of a greenish cast caused by algae, and long, hooklike claws used in gripping tree branches while hanging or moving along in a habitual upside-down position.
a pack or group of bears.

Origin of sloth

1125–75; Middle English slowth (see slow, -th¹); replacing Old English slǣwth, derivative of slǣw, variant of slāw slow

Synonyms for sloth

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1. shiftlessness, idleness, slackness.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for sloth

inactivity, lethargy, laxness, idleness, listlessness, slowness, slackness, slothfulness, indolence, inertia, lackadaisicalness, supineness

Examples from the Web for sloth

Contemporary Examples of sloth

Hard-wired into the psyche of many is the idea that somehow time off is akin to sloth.
Obama’s Extravagant Summer Break? More Like, America’s Vacation-Deficit Disorder
Clive Irving
August 10, 2014
This disease was thought to stem from bad climate, and sloth.
When TB Was a Death Sentence: An Excerpt From ‘The Remedy’
Thomas Goetz
April 16, 2014
Here are the Russians, they will punish us for our sloth and hubris, but if we make Johnny read better!
Sunday Q&A: Josef Joffe on the Myth of American Decline
Michael Moynihan
November 17, 2013
Thanksgiving is about sloth and gluttony, as well as a dash of envy and greed.
Eat Turkey All You Want! It’s Not Going to Put You to Sleep
Kent Sepkowitz
November 22, 2012
The conservative narrative would be built around some idea of liberal licentiousness or sloth or some such.
Quasi-Random Responses to Comments from the Previous Thread
Michael Tomasky
August 29, 2012

Historical Examples of sloth

Moderation is the languor and sloth of the soul, Ambition its activity and heat.
Reflections
Francois Duc De La Rochefoucauld
Mealy-bug is usually a sign of sloth on the part of the gardener.
Manual of American Grape-Growing
U. P. Hedrick
To her well-wishers it seemed as if the people had given itself to sloth and indulgence.
The Siege of Boston
Allen French
She's an old thing herself, and of course she hasn't the nerves of a sloth.
The Best Short Stories of 1920
Various
Am I the cause that he hath sunk in sloth, and men scoff at his name and his strength?'
King Arthur's Knights
Henry Gilbert

British Dictionary definitions for sloth

sloth

noun

any of several shaggy-coated arboreal edentate mammals of the family Bradypodidae, esp Bradypus tridactylus (three-toed sloth or ai) or Choloepus didactylus (two-toed sloth or unau), of Central and South America. They are slow-moving, hanging upside down by their long arms and feeding on vegetation
reluctance to work or exert oneself

Word Origin for sloth

Old English slǣwth; from slǣw, variant of slāw slow

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for sloth

late 12c., "indolence, sluggishness," formed from Middle English slou, slowe (see slow (adj.)) + abstract formative -th (2). Replaced Old English slæwð "sloth, indolence." Sense of "slowness, tardiness" is from mid-14c. As one of the deadly sins, it translates Latin accidia.

The slow-moving mammal first so called 1610s, a translation of Portuguese preguiça "slowness, slothfulness," from Latin pigritia "laziness" (cf. Spanish perezosa "slothful," also "the sloth").