Definition of "sloth"

sloth

/sləʊθ/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural sloths
1. (uncountable) Laziness; slowness in the mindset; disinclination to action or labour.
  Quotations
  Who having ſpilt much blood, and don much waſte / Subduing Nations, and achievd thereby / Fame in the World, high titles, and rich prey, / Shall change thir courſe to pleaſure, eaſe, and ſloth, / Surfet, and luſt, till wantonneſs and pride / Raiſe out of friendſhip hoſtil deeds in Peace.
  1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, lines 787–792
  Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labour wears.
  1758, Benjamin Franklin, Preliminary Address to the Pennsylvania Almanac
2. (countable) A herbivorous, arboreal South American mammal of the families Megalonychidae and Bradypodidae, noted for its slowness and inactivity.
3. (rare) A collective term for a group of bears.
verb
third-person singular simple present sloths, present participle slothing, simple past and past participle slothed
1. (obsolete, intransitive, transitive) To be idle; to idle (away time).
  Quotations
  […] the most of professors are for imbezzeling, mispending and slothing away their time, their talents, their opportunities to do good in […]
  1676, John Bunyan, The Strait Gate, or, Great Difficulty of Going to Heaven‎, London: Francis Smith, page 69
  That you endeavour carefully to please your Lady, Master or Mistress, be faithful, diligent and submissive to them, encline not to sloth or laze in bed, but rise early in a morning.
  1677, Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid‎, London: T. Passinger, page 2

Definition of "sloth"

sloth

noun

Quotations

verb

Quotations