SLOTH • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Sloth

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/sloʊθ/ Listen

noun

Sloth n.

1.

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

2.

Disinclination to action or labor; sluggishness; laziness; idleness. "(They) change their course to pleasure, ease, and sloth." "Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears."

3.

(Zool.) Any one of several species of arboreal edentates constituting the family Bradypodidae, and the suborder Tardigrada. They have long exserted limbs and long prehensile claws. Both jaws are furnished with teeth, 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 (Cholopus Hoffmanni) inhabits Central America. Various large extinct terrestrial edentates, such as Megatherium and Mylodon, are often called sloths.

Australian sloth, or Native sloth (Zool.), the koala.

Sloth animalcule (Zool.), a tardigrade.

Sloth bear (Zool.), a black or brown long-haired bear (Melursus ursinus, or Melursus 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 (Zool.), a loris.

verb

Sloth v. i. To be idle. (Obs.)

See images of 'Sloth'

Etymology of 'Sloth'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Sloth" Quotes from Famous Books

... person, refused to admit him to her presence; and for the love of this lady who had so unkindly treated him, the noble Orsino, forsaking the sports of the held and all manly exercises in which he used to delight, passed his hours in ignoble sloth, listening to the effeminate sounds of soft music, gentle airs, and passionate love-songs; and neglecting the company of the wise and learned lords with whom he used to associate, he was now all day long conversing with young Cesario. ...

— Tales from Shakespeare • Charles and Mary Lamb

... and wondered at by all the old women. And so I became very vain, and despised most of the boys that were at all near my own age, and before I was eight years old I was a "character". Sensibility, imagination, vanity, sloth, and feelings of deep and bitter contempt for almost all who traversed the orbit of my understanding, were even ...

— Biographia Epistolaris, Volume 1. • Coleridge, ed. Turnbull

... processions of devotees, whose adoration and levity seem to keep equal pace, and succeed each other in turns. "Do you want to make your son sick of soldiering? Shew him the Trainbands of London on a field-day." Let him who would wish to give his son a distaste to Popery, point out to him the sloth, the ignorance, and the bigotry ...

— A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay • Watkin Tench

... bat-wing junk And tatterdemalion sampan glide, Sails of brown and black and yellow swinging. Down the Yang-tse bat-wing junks Fish-eyed and gaudy take the tide, Forth to the sea in sloth they ride, The ...

— Many Gods • Cale Young Rice

... this sloth and awake: I will sing till I've stiffened your lip against every knave that would take ...

— The Green Helmet and Other Poems • William Butler Yeats

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