slowpoke

American  

[sloh-pohk] / ˈsloʊˌpoʊk /

noun

Informal.

• slowpokes
  plural

1. a person who makes slow progress.

   Synonyms:

   slug, dallier, dawdler, laggard

---

slowpoke British  

/ ˈsləʊˌpəʊk /

noun

1. informal the usual US and Canadian word for slowcoach

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• slowpokes
  plural

Etymology

Origin of slowpoke

First recorded in 1915–20; slow + poke ¹

Explanation

If it takes a long time for you to act or move, you're a slowpoke. Being a slowpoke is a real disadvantage when you're running in a 50 yard dash. The informal slowpoke is a good one to use when your little brother is lagging behind, slowing everyone down: "Hurry up, slowpoke!" In the UK, the equivalent word is slowcoach, which makes sense if you think of a stagecoach moving slowly. The poke part of slowpoke comes from a rare meaning, "a device attached to pigs and sheep to keep them from escaping," and is also the root of pokey, or "slow."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

slowpoke slowpokes

“She was not a slowpoke grown-up,” Cleary wrote in “Ramona and Her Mother.”

From New York Times ● Mar. 26, 2021

Jones, the first-round draft pick, had trouble hanging onto the ball at times, but he had a strong arm and was no slowpoke, like Manning.

From The Guardian ● Dec. 30, 2019

Gov. Newsom kept her on as leader of a “strike team” to reform the slowpoke Department of Motor Vehicles.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2019

After an asteroid crashed into the earth 66 million years ago, triggering a mass extinction, it would have been harder for slowpoke reproducers like dinosaurs to recover.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 3, 2017

“You’ve gone from slowpoke to safety hazard in one day.”

From "Dead End in Norvelt" by Jack Gantos

One possible explanation for the Milky Way’s stellar slowpokes is that our galaxy is extraordinarily deficient in dark matter, the invisible substance thought to serve as gravitational scaffolding for cosmic structures.

From Scientific American ● Oct. 11, 2023

Kids get a thrill out of seeing food on the autobahn belt whizzing by the slowpokes on the regular sushi belt.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 3, 2021

Dmitriy Katsnelson’s take on the bull reminds me when a friend and I were cooling our heels on a golf course, waiting for the four slowpokes in front of us to move on.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 27, 2017

These slowpokes in the left lane are annoying, to be sure, but it still seems extreme to label their behavior illegal.

From Washington Times ● Jul. 6, 2015

"Hurry up, slowpokes," said Grace Harlowe, popping her head in the door.

From Grace Harlowe's Junior Year at High School Or, Fast Friends in the Sororities by Jessie Graham [pseud.] Flower