slowness
slow
S0479200 (slō)These adjectives mean taking more time than is usual or necessary. Slow is the least specific: a slow bus; a slow heartbeat; slow to anger. Dilatory implies lack of promptness caused by delay, procrastination, or indifference: paid a late fee because I was dilatory in paying the bill. Leisurely suggests a relaxed lack of haste: went for a leisurely walk by the river. Laggard implies hanging back or falling behind: "the horses' laggard pace" (Rudyard Kipling).
Slowness
See Also: MOVEMENT
- Agonizingly slow like the gradual ripening of a peach on a limb —Sue Grafton
- By degrees, as lawyers go to heaven —Anon
- [A locomotive] came slowly, like a bison —Saul Bellow
- (An hour) crawled by like a sick cockroach —Raymond Chandler
- Creeping like a snail —William Shakespeare
- Dragged around … like a dog with three legs —Shelby Hearon
- [An endless journey] like crossing the Sahara by pogo stick —Robert Silverberg
- Gather slowly, like a storm that swirls at sea —Anon
- Gradually, like a man entering a swimming pool slowly —Michael Korda
The gradual process being compared to entering a pool is a return to work.
- Grew with such infinite slowness, like a stalactite —Lawrence Durrell
- Happening in slow motion like a baseball replay —Maxine Kumin
- Have all the speed and liquidity of a slug skating across salt —Erik Sandberg-Diment, New York Times, January 18, 1987
Diment’s comparison refers to a word processing program.
- It [the movie Kangaroo] moves like a slug climbing a cornstalk —Rex Reed, 1987
- It takes time … like getting your hair curled —Carlos Baker
- Leisurely as the drift of continents —T. Coraghessan Boyle
- Life passed him as slowly as traffic on a main artery during the evening rush hour —Anon
- Moved as slow as paste —Paul Theroux
- (My feet seemed deep in sand. I) moved like some heat-weary animal —Theodore Roethke
- Moved slowly, like a diver with heavy boots —Graham Swift
- Moved slowly through her days, like a mermaid floating in a translucent sea where all was calm, shadowy, and ambiguous —Peter Meinke
- (Here and there a herd of stray cows) moves as slowly as old men on their way to the graveyard —A. D. Winans
- (The government) moves like a huge blob of molasses on a two-degree slope —John D. MacDonald
An extension of the cliche, “Slow as molasses.”
- Moving about, slow as earthquake survivors —Brian Moore
- A process about as slow and arduous as the building of the pyramids —Edith Wharton
The process Wharton is describing is character building.
- Pushes ahead; slow as a weight —Delmore Schwartz
- Slow and silent, like old movies —Sharon Sheehe Stark
See Also: SILENCE
- Slow as a dream —Robert Penn Warren
- Slow as a hog on ice with his tail frozen —American colloquialism, attributed to Vermont
The way Vermonters say it: “With his tail froze.”
- Slow as a tortoise —American colloquialism
To add emphasis there’s, “As old as an old tortoise.”
- Slow as dough —Sharon Sheehe Stark
In a story entitled The Horsehair, the simile is used to draw a portrait of a dull, unambitious man.
- Slow as molasses going uphill —Jamaican expression
A variant of, “Slow as molasses.”
- Slow as the hands of a schoolroom clock —W. D. Snodgrass
- Slow as the oak’s growth —John Greenleaf Whittier
- Slow-blooded, like a lizard in winter —Mary Hood
- Slowly, like bodies being dragged —Ross Macdonald
- Slowly, like turtles cooking in the sun, we rotated our heads —T. Coraghessan Boyle
See Also: HEAD MOVEMENTS
- Slow-moving like an old woman with a walker —Anon
- Slow reluctant process [a city’s morning stirrings], like the waking of a heavy sleeper —Edith Wharton
- (Opened the case) with deliberate ceremonial slowness, as if breaking bread at a wedding banquet —Richard Lourie
| Noun | 1. |  slowness - unskillfulness resulting from a lack of training |
| 2. | slowness - a rate demonstrating an absence of haste or hurry | |
| 3. | slowness - lack of normal development of intellectual capacities |