| 释义 |
▪ I. sloth, n.1|sləʊθ|
Forms: α. 2 slauðe, 3–5 slauþe, 5 slaw(e)th(e, slauth (6 slaughte). β. 3 slouhðe, 4 slouȝte, slougthe, 5 sloughe, slought. γ. 4–5 slouþe, 4–6 slouthe, 4–6 slouth; 4 s(c)lowþe, 4–5 slowthe, 5, 7 slowth. δ. 6–8 sloath. ε. 5 slothe, 6– sloth.
[Early ME. slāwð(e, slōwð(e, directly formed on slāw, slōw slow a. in place of OE. slǽwð sleuth n.1]
1. Physical or mental inactivity; disinclination to action, exertion, or labour; sluggishness, idleness, indolence, laziness.
αc1175Lamb. Hom. 19 Þe licome luuað muchele slauðe and muchele etinge. c1205Lay. 27039 Stið imodede men & swifte, slauþe bidæled. 13..E.E. Allit. P. B 178 For fele fautez may a freke forfete his blysse,..þen for slauþe one. a1400–50Alexander 4293 Surfet, surquidry, & slawth.
βa1225Ancr. R. 144 Heo wule scheken of hire slep of vuel slouhðe. c1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 200 Oure owene necligence & slouȝte. 1437Libel Eng. Policy in Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 187 Nowe here be ware..That for sloughe and for rach[l]eshede [etc.]. c1489Caxton Sonnes of Aymon iv. 117 Me semeth that..slougthe is amonge vs.
γ1340–70Alex. & Dind. 344 We nolle sclepe in no sclowþe til we hem sclain haue. 1390Gower Conf. I. 15 Ofte is sen that mochel slowthe, Whan men ben drunken of the cuppe, Doth mochel harm. a1450Knt. de la Tour (1868) 42 Another ensaumple..of hem that for slouthe lessethe her masse. c1535Elyot Educ. Children B j, For Slouth destroyeth the power of nature. 1597Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxxii. §17 Slouth and fulnesse in peaceable times at home.
δa1618Sylvester Paradox agst. Libertie 225 Wks. (Grosart) II. 57 Not one of them will brook his Son in sloath to lurk. 1628Prynne Censure Cozens 42 Their sloath and lasinesse is so great. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 190 Himself did..Arts ordain; Nor suffer'd Sloath to rust his active Reign.
ε1575–85Sandys Serm. xvii. 298 To withdraw men..from sloth. 1606Dekker Seven Deadly Sins Wks. (Grosart) II. 50 This nastie, and loathsome sin of Sloth. 1648Wilkins Math. Magick i. ii. 8 These arts..admit not either of sloth or wearinesse. 1700Rowe Amb. Step-Moth. i. i, Sloth and folly Shiver and shrink at sight of toil and hazard. 1790Burke Fr. Rev. 247 The same lazy but restless disposition, which loves sloth and hates quiet. 1847J. Yeowell Anc. Brit. Church vii. 64 Ease has a natural tendency to engender sloth. 1867Freeman Norm. Conq. (1877) I. v. 366 Deposed by his subjects on account of his sloth and luxury.
b. Personified.
1362Langl. P. Pl. A. ii. 69 In al þe seruyse of Slouþe I sese hem to-gedere. 1390Gower Conf. II. 9 Bot Slowthe mai no profit winne, Bot he mai singe [etc.]. c1425Cast. Persev. 898 in Macro Plays, Lechery, Slawth, & Glotonye, to mans flesch ȝe are fendis Fre. 1609Dekker Warres Wks. (Grosart) IV. 115 Sloth, by reason that he is troubled with the gout, busies himselfe little with State matters. 1769Gray Ode Installat. 4 Dreaming Sloth of pallid hue.
c. Comb., as sloth-jaundiced, sloth-loved, sloth-promoting, sloth-shunning adjs.
1591Sylvester Du Bartas i. vi. 868 What can be hard to a sloath-shunning Spirit? 1598Ibid. ii. ii. ii. Babylon 530 Down in my sloath-lov'd bed again I shrink. 1754‘J. Love’ Cricket i. 64 Of sloth-promoting sports, forewarn'd, beware! 1794Coleridge Lines on Friend Poems (1907) 27 Energic reason and a shaping mind... Sloth-jaundiced all!
2. Slowness; tardiness.
c1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 313 Þus many men for sich slowþe of sharp reprouyng synnen meche. c1386Chaucer 2nd Nun's T. 258 If it so be thou wolt with-outen slouthe Bileue aright. 1451J. Capgrave Life St. Aug. 21 Augustin be-gan to accuse him-self sor..of þe slauth of his returne to God. 1628Ford Lover's Mel. v. i, Wherefore drop thy words in such a sloth? 1729G. Shelvocke Artillery v. 379 [To] fill all his..Fuzes or Trains of Communication with a Composition whose Sloth he has been assured of. 1815Jefferson Writ. (1830) IV. 265 From sloth of proceedings, an embargo was permitted to run through the winter.
3. As a ‘proper term’, by later writers taken to mean: A company of bears (or erroneously, boars).
c1452in Trans. Philol. Soc. (1909) iii. 52 A Slouthe of Beerys. Ibid. 53 A slothe of bayris. c1470Hors, Shepe, & G. (Roxb.) 31 A slouth of beres. [Cf. sleuth n.1 1 b.] 1616Bullokar Eng. Exp., Slowth, a heard or company of wild Boares together. 1688Holme Armoury ii. 132/1 The Proper terms given to Beasts when they are in Companyes... Beares, a Slowth. 1801Strutt Sports & Past. 17 A sloth of bears.
4. An edentate arboreal mammal of a sluggish nature, inhabiting tropical parts of Central and South America.
Two genera of sloths are recognized, viz. Bradypus, with three toes on the fore-feet, and Cholœpus with only two.
1613Purchas Pilgrimage 704 note, The Spaniards call it..the light dog. The Portugals Sloth. The Indians, Hay. 1681Grew Musæum i. ii. i. 11 The Sloath... An Animal of so slow a motion, that he will be three or four days, at least, in climbing up and coming down a Tree. 1699Wafer Voy. (1729) 401 The Sloath. Is a very slow-paced Animal, taking a whole Day in going fifty Paces. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) IV. 343 Of the sloth there are two different kinds, distinguished from each other by their claws. 1834McMurtrie Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 93 The Sloths have cylindrical molars, and sharp canini longer than those molars. 1894–5Lydekker Roy. Nat. Hist. III. 207 Sloths are mainly nocturnal; and in their usual attitude they hang suspended back downwards.
fig.1826Hood Last Man 160, I..never was one of the sloths. 1852H. Rogers Eclipse of Faith (1864) 140 Man has been gradually crawling up, a very Sloth in ‘progress’, from the lowest Fetichism and Polytheism.
b. Applied, usually with distinguishing epithets, to other animals, as the sloth-bear, the koala or koolah, the slow lori or lemur, and the mylodon or megatherium.
See also ground sloth s.v. ground n. 18 b.
(a)1790Shaw Naturalist's Misc. II. pl. 58 The Ursine Bradypus, or Ursiform Sloth. 1793Pennant Synop. Quadr. (ed. 3) II. 243 Ursiform Sloth with a long and strong nose, truncated at the end. 1800Shaw Gen. Zool. I. i. 160 The Ursine Sloth is about the size of a Bear. 1827Griffith Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. II. 238 The Ursus Labiatus, placed erroneously by Pennant and others among the Sloths, under the name of the Ursine Sloth.
(b)1813–27[see koala]. a1862J. G. Wood Illustr. Nat. Hist. I. 468 The name of Australian Sloth..has been applied to it [the Koala, Phascolarctos cinereus] because it is able to cling with its feet to the branches after the manner of the sloths.
(c)1827Griffith Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. I. 229 The Slow Loris, or Sloth of Bengal (Lemur tardigradus, L.). 1903Lydekker Mostly Mammals 314 The name ‘sloth’ is not infrequently misapplied by travellers to the slow-lemurs of India and the Malay countries, or to their cousins the galagos of Africa.
(d)1842Owen (title), Description of the Skeleton of an Extinct Gigantic Sloth, Mylodon robustus. Ibid. 147 The osseous frame-work of the gigantic extinct Sloths.
c. A species of Protozoa (see quot.).
1859P. H. Gosse Evenings Microscope (1877) 392 Two more species of this extensive genus [Euglena]..have received the appellations of the Pear (E. pyrum) and the Sloth (E. deses.)
5. Special combs.: sloth-animalcule (see quots.); sloth-bear, an Indian species of bear (Melursus labiatus or ursinus); sloth-monkey, the slow loris or lemur; sloth-tree, the South American trumpet-tree (Cecropia peltata), whose leaves are eaten by the sloth.
1871Carpenter's Zool. II. 230 A number of minute creatures, well known to microscopic observers as *Sloth or Bear-Animalcules. 1889Geddes & Thomson Evolution of Sex vi. §5. 72 The degenerate water-bears or sloth-animalcules (Tardigrada).
1835Penny Cycl. IV. 90/2 Labiated Bear, or *Sloth Bear. a1862J. G. Wood Illustr. Nat. Hist. I. 407 The Aswail, or Sloth Bear. 1894Lydekker Roy. Nat. Hist. II. 26 The sloth-bear may be regarded as one of the most characteristic..mammals of India.
1891Cent. Dict. s.v., *Sloth-monkey. 1905A. R. Wallace My Life I. xx. 324 The two species of Sloth-monkeys (pithecia) are found.
1885A. Brassey Trades 29 Among them was the *sloth tree (Cecropia), all arms and legs.
▪ II. † sloth, n.2 Obs.
Also slothe.
[app. an alteration of slogh slough n.1 The examples are E. Anglian.]
A miry or muddy place; a slough.
c1440Promp. Parv. 460/1 Slothe, where fowle water stondythe, lacuna. Ibid., Slothe, where swyne or oþer bestys han dwellyd, volutabrum. 1447O. Bokenham Seyntys (Roxb.) 125 But thi goddys..Or ben of bras..Or ellys of stonys wych in a sloth to laye Wer bettyr to skepyn from the foul weye.
▪ III. † sloth, a. Obs. rare.
Also 5 slouth(e, slought.
[f. sloth n.1 Cf. sleuth a.1]
Slothful, slow.
1412–20Lydg. Chron. Troy i. 3646 Of þe future slouth and necligent. c1450Cov. Myst. (Shaks. Soc.) 367 A! ȝe fonnys and slought of herte For to beleve in holy Scrypture. 1549Latimer 2nd Serm. bef. Edw. VI (Arb.) 48 God is a good God,..and very sloth to reuenge hys blasphemie. 1605Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iii. iii. Law 138 What? are ye growne so sloth?
▪ IV. sloth, v. Now rare.|sləʊθ|
Forms: α. 5 slawth. β. 4–5 slowth (5 slowȝth), 4–6 slouthe, 7– sloth.
[f. sloth n.1 Cf. sleuth v.1]
†1. trans. To allow to slip through slothfulness or delay; to neglect. Obs.
1390Gower Conf. II. 2 Som time he slowtheth in a day That he nevere after gete mai. 1455Rolls of Parlt. V. 286/2 Diverses matiers..have be slowthed and throwen into grete..omission. 1477Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 22 Slouthe nor delay not that thou must nedely execute. 1500Will of Catelyn (Somerset Ho.) My tithes necligently forgoten or slowthed. 1708M. Bruce Lect. 13, I do not bid you cast away your Callings nor Sloth them neither.
†b. To waste, pass away (time) in idleness.
1523State P., Hen. VIII, VI. 171 Whiche thinges must nedes geve the more occasion to thEmperour not to slouthe any time that may be taken for avauncement of this enterprise. 1676Bunyan Strait Gate 69 The most of professors are for imbezzeling, mispending and slothing away their time.
2. intr. To be or become indolent or lazy.
1390Gower Conf. II. 116 Yit ne wol he noght travaile.., Bot slowtheth under such a drede. c1440Jacob's Well 281 Þat þou schalt noȝt dullyn and slawthyn in þi labour of þi prayers. 1888Doughty Arabia Deserta I. 279 Strenuous solitary men, whose unquiet mettle moves them from slothing in the tent's shadow to prowl as the wolf in the wilderness.
Hence ˈslothing vbl. n.
c1690Jas. Fraser in Wodrow Sel. Biogr. (1847) II. 239 Mispending of time, excess in lawful comforts, slothing of private duties. |