| 释义 |
sluggish, a.|ˈslʌgɪʃ|
Forms: 5 slugis(sh, -ys(s)h, sluggyssh, -us(s(h, -isshe, 6 -ysshe, -ysh(e, -ysch, -ische (5 -esch, 6 -essh), 6– sluggish; 6 slogish, slo(u)ggysshe, slouggish, 7 slougish.
[f. slug n.1 or v.1 + -ish.]
1. a. Of persons: Indisposed to action or exertion; inclined to be slow or slothful; not easily moved to activity.
c1440Alph. Tales 20 Fro thens furth, he was neuer slugissh to rise & go vnto Goddis serves. 1489Caxton Faytes of A. i. vii. 18 Ne be he not slouthful, sluggyssh, ne slepy. 1535Coverdale Prov. vi. 9 How longe wilt thou slepe, thou slogish man? 1581Marbeck Bk. Notes 1146 They were sluggish and sought not that which was for the edification of the people. 1632Lithgow Trav. x. 429 The Turke, and the Irish-man, are the least industrious, and most sluggish liuers vnder the Sunne. 1678Wanley Wonders Lit. World v. i. §90. 467/2 He was sluggish and careless. 1780Johnson Let. to Mrs. Porter 8 Apr., I am indeed but a sluggish correspondent. 1807Chalmers Caledonia I. Pref. p. vii, The scholars of Scotland remained sluggish, and silent. 1872Bagehot Physics & Pol. (1876) 37 A sluggish Englishman will often catch the American look in a few years.
absol.1614–25[see slug n.1 3 b].
b. Of animals; also spec. (see quot. 1884).
[1827D. Johnson Ind. Field Sports 214 There is one kind of snake in India of a sluggish nature.] 1842Combe Digestion 27 Compared with the torpid and sluggish reptile, the active..quadruped requires.. a much larger quantity of nutriment. 1884Encycl. Brit. XVII. 241/1 The sluggish puff-adder (Clotho arietans) is common and very dangerous.
2. Of the mind, disposition, etc.: Characterized by or exhibiting lack of vigour, alertness, or energy; slow in apprehension or decision; dull.
c1450tr. De Imitatione iii. iii, Dedly mennes hertes waxe sluggussh [v.r. slugged]. 1538Starkey England ii. iii. (1878) 214 For sluggysch myndys lyue in cornarys and content themselfys wyth pryuate lyfe. 1560Pilkington Expos. Aggeus (1562) 88 That the mynde be not made sluggish by cromminge in meate. 1631Gouge God's Arrows v. §10. 419 They..manifested thereby a luskish, sluggish disposition. 1663S. Patrick Parab. Pilgr. (1687) 31 This will prepare you..to throw out the sluggish humour which is in all our natures. 1750Johnson Rambler No. 56. ⁋5 Men, whose perceptions are languid and sluggish. 1825Scott Betrothed iii, Ill policy it is to plant such sluggish natures in our borders. 1871L. Stephen Playgr. Eur. ix. (1894) 207 Sluggish imaginations require strong stimulants.
3. a. Of conditions, etc.: Characterized by want of, or disinclination to, action or exertion.
1561Hollybush Hom. Apoth. 4 b, A slouggish or slepery disease. 1570Satir. Poems Reform. xi. 111 Remuif all sluggische slewth away. 1632Lithgow Trav. x. 446 This sluggish and idle husbandry. 1670Milton Hist. Eng. vi. Wks. 1851 V. 244 Ethelred, whom no adversity could awake from his soft and sluggish life. 1788Reynolds Disc. 250 Either a vain confidence, or a sluggish despair. 1798Edgeworth Pract. Educ. (1811) I. 116 It is of consequence to distinguish between slow and sluggish attention. 1838Prescott Ferd. & Is. (1846) III. 25 A life of sluggish inaction. 1873Hamerton Intell. Life i. iii. 21 Each of us has a little cleverness and a great deal of sluggish stupidity.
b. [Rendering of Russ. stértaya (shizofreníya), worn, hackneyed (schizophrenia).] Applied to an alleged type of schizophrenia ascribed to political or religious dissidents confined in state psychiatric hospitals in the U.S.S.R.
1977Science News 10 Sept. 165 ‘Even if one should accept the diagnosis of sluggish schizophrenia in these and similar cases,’ Chodoff said, ‘one must wonder why a disease without delusions, hallucinations or agitated behavior should require injections of chloropromazine (an antischizophrenic drug) for its treatment.’ 1978Nature 4 May 6/2 Yet, when committed, Shikhanovich was diagnosed as a ‘psychopath with the possibility of the onset of sluggish schizophrenia’ (the latter ‘disease’, of course, being unknown to non-Soviet diagnosis). 1980Prisoners of Conscience in USSR (Amnesty Internat.) (ed. 2) 184 Schizophrenia, often in its ‘sluggish’ form, has been the diagnosis most commonly made of dissenters.
4. a. Of things: Not readily stirring or moving; slow to stir, act, or make progress in any way.
1640Wilkins New Planet ix. (1707) 250 Matter is of it self a dull and sluggish thing. 1692Bentley Boyle Lect. vi. 213 This poor Atom, sluggish and unactive as it is, doth involve Necessity of Existence. 1764Churchill The Ghost Poems I. 329 The sluggish Oars suspended hung. 1785Canning Poet. Wks. (1827) 4 Pale ivy throws its sluggish arms around. 1805R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. I. 420 A very sluggish species of land is formed. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 406 Bacon had sown the good seed in a sluggish soil and an ungenial season. 1897Daily News 1 Apr. 2/6 Yarns are sluggish, and..the tendency in some directions favours buyers.
b. Med. Of the pulse, liver, etc.
1843R. J. Graves Syst. Clin. Med. ix. 100 Sluggish and dilated, or else extremely contracted pupils. 1845Budd Dis. Liver 172 Pulse..sluggish, exceedingly compressible. Ibid. 317 The bowels are sluggish. 1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. IV. 25 A symptom of ‘sluggish liver’.
c. Med. Slow in responding to treatment.
1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 519 An effect similar to that of nitrate of silver in sluggish ulcers.
5. a. Moving, flowing, etc., very slowly or tardily; slow in movement.
1611Shakes. Cymb. iv. ii. 205 To shew what Coast thy sluggish c[r]are Might'st easilest harbour in. 1665Hooke Microgr. 33 These Glass Drops..being exceedingly hot, and thereby of a kind of sluggish fluid Consistence. 1791Gilpin Forest Scenery II. 147 The river dwindles into a sluggish, little, bull-rush stream. 1812Byron Ch. Har. ii. xx, To waste on sluggish hulks the sweetest breeze! 1842J. Bischoff Woollen Manuf. II. 166 Germany being a flat country, and the rivers..sluggish. 1878Huxley Physiogr. 192 A hot mud which rolls down the hill in a sluggish stream.
fig.189119th Cent. Dec. 858 The currents of public life..are sluggish and slow in Germany.
b. Of motion, etc.: Very slow or tardy.
1648Wilkins Math. Magic i. xx. 141 That orb being the lowest of all, and consequently of a dull and sluggish motion. 1796F. Burney Camilla v. ii, His wry looks and sluggish pace always proclaimed his ill will to the task. 1826G. Samouelle Direct. Collect. Insects & Crust. 38 The former have a sluggish flight. 1835J. Duncan Beetles (Nat. Lib.) 252 Its motions are so sluggish, that it may be said to drag itself along rather than walk. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 379 Their velocity is..contrasted with the sluggish pace of the continental posts.
6. Comb., as sluggish-minded, sluggish-moving adjs.
1851Helps Comp. Solit. iii. (1854) 34 The most sluggish-minded man craves amusement. 1899Crockett Black Douglas 68 The broad sluggish-moving river. |