Sluggish

//ˈslʌɡɪʃ// adj

adj ·Common ·Middle school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Habitually idle and lazy; slothful; dull; inactive

    "a sluggish man"

  2. 2
    Slow; having little motion.

    "Vp thou tame River, vvake; / And from the liquid limbes this ſlumber ſhake: / Thou drovvn'st thy ſelfe in inofficious ſleepe; / And theſe thy ſluggiſh vvaters ſeeme to creepe, / Rather than flovv."

  3. 3
    Having no power to move oneself or itself; inert.

    "Matter, being impotent, sluggish, and inactive, hath no power to stir or move itself."

  4. 4
    Characteristic of a sluggard; dull; stupid; tame; simple.
  5. 5
    Exhibiting economic decline, inactivity, slow, or subnormal growth.

    "Inflation has been rising despite a sluggish economy."

Adjective
  1. 1
    slow and apathetic wordnet
  2. 2
    (of business) not active or brisk wordnet
  3. 3
    slow or slothful wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
inactiveslowinertslowtorpidabeyant

Example

More examples

"Mr. Smith ran his sluggish horse along the country roads."

Etymology

From slug + -ish.

Related phrases

sluggish schizophrenia

More for "sluggish"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.