slowpoke

American  

[sloh-pohk] / ˈsloʊˌpoʊk /

noun

Informal.

• slowpokes
  plural

1. a person who makes slow progress.

   Synonyms:

   slug, dallier, dawdler, laggard

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slowpoke British  

/ ˈsləʊˌpəʊk /

noun

1. informal the usual US and Canadian word for slowcoach

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• slowpokes
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of slowpoke

First recorded in 1915–20; slow + poke ¹

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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

“This is a very mortifying situation,” Fisher Ames of Massachusetts said then, at Federal Hall in New York City, while waiting for his slowpoke colleagues.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 4, 2023

“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

Four decades after the slowpoke era of "Drive 55," when a national energy crisis slowed speed limits to a crawl, gas prices have leveled off and automobiles have become far more fuel-efficient.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 12, 2014

The work was hot and dry and as monotonous as the maddening, slowpoke motion of the pumpjacks themselves.

From "Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" by H.G. Bissinger

Even Caitlin Clark and Iowa — not exactly slowpokes themselves — couldn’t keep up.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 8, 2024

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

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

Of course we can’t guarantee that he’ll still be there when you slowpokes arrive.”

From The Go Ahead Boys in the Island Camp by Ross Kay

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