. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
From Middle English slow, slaw, from Old English slāw (“sluggish, inert, slothful, late, tardy, torpid, slow”), from Proto-Germanic *slaiwaz (“blunt, dull, faint, weak, slack”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *sleyH-u- (“bad”). Cognate with Scots slaw (“slow”), West Frisian sleau (“slow, dull, lazy”), Dutch sleeuw (“blunt, dull”), Low German slee (“dull, sluggish”), German schlehe, schleh (“dull, exhausted, faint”), Danish sløv (“dull, torpid, drowsy”), Swedish slö (“slack, lazy”), Icelandic sljór (“dim-witted, slow”).
Pronunciation
Adjective
slow (comparative slower, superlative slowest)
- Taking a long time to move or go a short distance, or to perform an action; not quick in motion; proceeding at a low speed.
a slow train; a slow computer
2013 July 20, “The attack of the MOOCs”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:Dotcom mania was slow in coming to higher education, but now it has the venerable industry firmly in its grip. Since the launch early last year of Udacity and Coursera, two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations.
- Not happening in a short time; spread over a comparatively long time.
1667, John Milton, “(please specify the book number)”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:These changes in the heavens, though slow, produced / Like change on sea and land, sidereal blast.
2013 May-June, Charles T. Ambrose, “Alzheimer’s Disease”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 200:Similar studies of rats have employed four different intracranial resorbable, slow sustained release systems—surgical foam, a thermal gel depot, a microcapsule or biodegradable polymer beads.
- Of reduced intellectual capacity; not quick to comprehend.
1994, Greg Daniels, “Secrets of a Successful Marriage”, in The Simpsons, season 5, episode 22, spoken by Carl (Hank Azaria):Hey, don't yell at Homer, just because he's a little slow.
1960, Dissertation Abstracts, volume 20, page 4007:Experienced classroom teachers are well acquainted with the attention-seeker, the shy girl, the aggressive boy, the poor concentrator, the slow student […]
- Not hasty; not tending to hurry; acting with deliberation or caution.
1999, Brian Paul Kaufman, K. Winston Caine, Prayer, Faith, and Healing: Cure Your Body, Heal Your Mind and Restore Your Soul:And even after the emotional cast comes off, we need to be slow about getting deeply involved in a relationship again
- (of a clock or the like) Behind in time; indicating a time earlier than the true time.
That clock is slow.
- Lacking spirit; deficient in liveliness or briskness.
- (of a period of time) Not busy; lacking activity.
It was a slow news day, so the editor asked us to make our articles wordier.
I'm just sitting here with a desk of cards, enjoying a slow afternoon.
Synonyms
Antonyms
- (antonym(s) of "taking a long time to move a short distance"): fast, quick, rapid, swift; see also Thesaurus:speedy
- (antonym(s) of "not happening in a short time"): abrupt, sudden; see also Thesaurus:sudden
- (antonym(s) of "of reduced intellectual capacity"): keen, quick, quick-witted; see also Thesaurus:intelligent
- (antonym(s) of "acting with deliberation"): hasty, precipitate, prompt; see also Thesaurus:prompt
- (antonym(s) of "behind in time"): accurate, fast
- (antonym(s) of "lacking spirit"): brisk, lively; see also Thesaurus:active
- (antonym(s) of "not busy"): hectic
Derived terms
Translations
not quick in motion
- Abkhaz: please add this translation if you can
- Afrikaans: stadig
- Albanian: i ngadalshëm (sq)
- American Sign Language: OpenB@BackHand-PalmDown OpenB@BackWrist-PalmDown
- Arabic: بَطِيء (baṭīʔ)
- Armenian: դանդաղ (hy) (dandaġ)
- Assamese: লেহেম (lehem), লেহেমীয়া (lehemia)
- Asturian: lentu
- Avar: хӏинцаб (ḥʳincab)
- Azerbaijani: yavaş (az), asta (az)
- Bashkir: яй (yay)
- Basque: geldi
- Belarusian: паво́льны (pavólʹny)
- Bikol Central: maluhay (bcl)
- Bulgarian: ба́вен (bg) (báven)
- Burmese: နှေး (my) (hne:)
- Catalan: lent (ca)
- Cebuano: hinay
- Chamicuro: yakameleste
- Chechen: please add this translation if you can
- Cherokee: ᎤᏍᎦᏃᎵ (usganoli)
- Chinese:
- Cantonese: 慢 (maan6)
- Mandarin: 慢 (zh) (màn)
- Czech: pomalý (cs)
- Dalmatian: tierč
- Danish: langsom (da)
- Deccani: ہلو
- Dutch: traag (nl), langzaam (nl), sloom (nl)
- Elfdalian: makklin
- Esperanto: malrapida
- Estonian: aeglane (et)
- Faroese: seinur (fo), pjakutur, pjákutur, seinførur, høsnutur, døllutur, seinpjakutur, putlutur, drúgvur, ótíttur
- Finnish: hidas (fi)
- French: lent (fr) m, lente (fr) f
- Friulian: lent
- Georgian: ნელი (neli)
- German: langsam (de)
- Greek: αργός (el) (argós), βραδύ (vradý)
- Ancient: βραδύς (bradús)
- Greenlandic: arriitsoq, kigaatsoq, sukkaatsoq
- Guaraní: mbegue (gn)
- Hebrew: איטי \ אִטִּי (ití)
- Higaonon: mahinay
- Hindi: धीमा (hi) (dhīmā), सुस्त (hi) (sust), आहिस्ता (hi) (āhistā)
- Hungarian: lassú (hu)
- Icelandic: hægur (is), seinn (is)
- Ido: lenta (io)
- Indonesian: lambat (id), pelan (id), perlahan (id)
- Ingrian: veeno, tyltsä mänomää
- Irish: mall, righin (Munster)
- Old Irish: mall
- Italian: lento (it)
- Japanese: 遅い (ja) (おそい, osoi), ゆっくり (ja) (yukkuri), 鈍足 (どんそく, donsoku)
- Kazakh: баяу (baäu), ақырын (kk) (aqyryn), жай (jai)
- Khmer: យឺត (km) (yɨɨt)
- Korean: 느린 (ko) (neurin), 느리다 (ko) (neurida) (predicative)
- Kurdish:
- Central Kurdish: لەسەر خۆ (leser xo), ھێواش (ckb) (hêwaş)
- Northern Kurdish: hêdî (ku)
- Kyrgyz: акырын (ky) (akırın), жай (ky) (jay)
- Ladin: plan
- Ladino: avagarozo, lento, yavash
- Lao: ຊ້າ (sā)
- Latin: lentus (la), tardus (la)
- Latvian: lēns
- Lithuanian: lėtas (lt)
- Luxembourgish: lues
- Macedonian: бавен (baven)
- Malay: lambat (ms), perlahan (ms), pelan (ms) (colloquial)
- Manchu: ᠮᠠᠨᡩᠠ (manda)
- Mongolian:
- Cyrillic: удаан (mn) (udaan)
- Mongolian: ᠤᠳᠠᠭᠠᠨ (udaɣan)
- Navajo: chʼééh
- Neapolitan: liento
- Nepali: सुस्त (susta)
- Ngunawal: gunyan
- Norman: lent
- Northern Sami: njoahci, hillján, hillji
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: langsom (no)
- Occitan: lent (oc)
- Old English: læt
- Old Javanese: jambat
- Ossetian: сындӕг (syndæg)
- Ottoman Turkish: آغر (ağır)
- Persian: آهسته (fa) (âheste)
- Plautdietsch: langsom, sacht (nds)
- Polish: wolny (pl), powolny (pl)
- Portuguese: lento (pt), devagar (pt)
- Punjabi: ਧੀਮਾ (dhīmā)
- Romanian: încet (ro)
- Romansch: plaun, lamaschi
- Russian: ме́дленный (ru) (médlennyj)
- Scottish Gaelic: mall, slaodach
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: спо̏р
- Roman: spȍr (sh)
- Sicilian: lentu (scn)
- Slovak: pomalý
- Slovene: počasen (sl)
- Sorbian:
- Upper Sorbian: pomałki, pomały
- Southern Altai: акырын (akïrïn), аккырын (akkïrïn)
- Spanish: lento (es)
- Swahili: pole (sw), aste (sw)
- Swedish: långsam (sv), seg (sv)
- Tagalog: mabagal
- Tajik: оҳиста (tg) (ohista), суст (tg) (sust)
- Tamil: மெதுவான (metuvāṉa)
- Tatar: әкрен (tt) (äkren)
- Telugu: నిదానము (te) (nidānamu)
- Thai: ช้า (th) (cháa)
- Tibetan: དལ་པོ (dal po)
- Turkish: yavaş (tr), ağır (tr)
- Tuvan: оожум (oojum)
- Ukrainian: пові́льний (povílʹnyj)
- Urdu: سُسْت (sust), دِھیمِا (dhīmā), آہِسْتَہ (ur) (āhista), کند (kund), کودن (kodan)
- Uyghur: ئاستا (asta)
- Uzbek: sekin (uz), sust (uz)
- Venetian: slofio, piajo
- Vietnamese: chậm (vi), chậm chạp (vi)
- Volapük: nevifik (vo)
- Walloon: londjin (wa) m, loyminoye (wa) m or f, lintiveus (wa) m
- Welsh: araf (cy)
- White Hmong: qeeb
- Yiddish: פּאַמעלעך (pamelekh)
- Zhuang: menh, yaeng
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spread over a comparatively long time
of reduced intellectual capacity
lacking in promptness; acting with deliberation
Verb
slow (third-person singular simple present slows, present participle slowing, simple past and past participle slowed)
- (transitive) To make (something) run, move, etc. less quickly; to reduce the speed of.
slow the process
2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 42:As he passed though the station, he slowed to yell to the signalman, Frank 'Sailor' Bridges: "Sailor - have you anything between here and Fordham? Where's the mail?" Gimbert knew the mail train was due, and he didn't want to endanger another train with his burning bomb wagon.
- (transitive) To keep from going quickly; to hinder the progress of.
slow the traffic
- (intransitive) To become slow; to slacken in speed; to decelerate.
2012, John Branch, “Snow Fall : The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek”, in New York Time:After about a minute, the creek bed vomited the debris into a gently sloped meadow. Saugstad felt the snow slow and tried to keep her hands in front of her.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
to reduce the speed of
- Bulgarian: забавям (bg) (zabavjam)
- Catalan: fer lent
- Dutch: vertragen (nl), ophouden (nl)
- Finnish: hidastaa (fi)
- French: ralentir (fr), freiner (fr)
- Georgian: შენელება (šeneleba)
- Greek: βραδύνω (el) (vradýno), επιβραδύνω (el) (epivradýno), σταματώ (el) (stamató)
- Italian: rallentare (it)
- Macedonian: забавува (zabavuva)
- Portuguese: fazer lento, decelerar, reduzir rapidez
- Russian: замедля́ть (ru) impf (zamedljátʹ)
- Spanish: frenar (es), lentificar (es), enlentecer (es), ralentizar (es)
- Swahili: pole (sw), aste (sw)
- Tibetan: དལ་དུ་གཏོང་བ (dal du gtong ba)
- Ukrainian: упові́льнювати impf (upovílʹnjuvaty), спові́льнювати impf (spovílʹnjuvaty)
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to keep from going quickly, to delay
Noun
slow (plural slows)
- Someone who is slow; a sluggard.
- (music) A slow song.
Adverb
slow (comparative slower, superlative slowest)
- Slowly.
That clock is running slow.
I want to dance with you nice and slow
Derived terms
Anagrams
French
Etymology
Borrowed from English slow.
Pronunciation
Noun
slow m (plural slows)
- slow waltz
See also
Further reading
Lower Sorbian
Pronunciation
Noun
slow
- genitive of slě