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The quality or condition of being indolent; inaction, or want of exertion of body or mind, proceeding from love of ease or aversion to toil; habitual idleness; indisposition to labor; laziness; sloth; inactivity. Life spent in indolence, and therefore sad. Cowper. As there is a great truth wrapped up in "diligence," wh…

Indulging in ease; avoiding labor and exertion; habitually idle; lazy; inactive; as, an indolent man. To waste long nights in indolent repose. Pope.

Human exertion of any kind employed for the creation of value, and regarded by some as a species of capital or wealth; labor.

Inertness; indisposition to motion, exertion, or action; want of energy; sluggishness. Men . . . have immense irresolution and inertia. Carlyle.

Want of activity or exertion; inertness; quietude. [R.] These vicissitudes of exertion and inertion of the arterial system constitute the paroxysms of remittent fever. E. Darwin.

Want of activity or exertion; habitual indisposition to action or motion; sluggishness; apathy; insensibility. Glanvill. Laziness and inertness of mind. Burke.

Indulging any appetite or passion to excess; immoderate to enjoyments or exertion.

t. These few restrictions, I hope, are no great stretches of intolerance, no very violent exertions of despotism. Burke.

Physical toil or bodily exertion, especially when fatiguing, irksome, or unavoidable, in distinction from sportive exercise; hard, muscular effort directed to some useful end, as agriculture, manufactures, and like; servile toil; exertion; work. God hath set Labor and rest, as day and night, to men Successive. Milton.…

Suffering pain or grief. Pope. Laboring oar, the oar which requires most strength and exertion; often used figuratively; as, to have, or pull, the laboring oar in some difficult undertaking.

Drooping or flagging from exhaustion; indisposed to exertion; without animation; weak; weary; heavy; dull. " Languid, powerless limbs. " Armstrong. Fire their languid souls with Cato's virtue. Addison.

or mind, when its voluntary functions are performed with difficulty, and only by a strong exertion of the will; languor; debility; weariness. The corporeal instruments of action being strained to a high pitch . . . will soon feel a lassitude. Barrow.

Disinclined to action or exertion; averse to labor; idle; shirking work. Bacon.

in force or efficiency; not strong; weak; slight; inconsiderable; as, little attention or exertion;little effort; little care or diligence. By sad experiment I know How little weight my words with thee can find. Milton.

o hand extended from the mouth, as the tongue of an ox or a log when heated with labor or exertion. The triple porter of the Stygian seat, With lolling tongue, lay fawning at thy feet. Dryden .

seem to be of loose texture; hence, a temperament lacking energy, inactive, indisposed to exertion or excitement. See Temperament.

The act or process of operating; agency; the exertion of power, physical, mechanical, or moral. The pain and sickness caused by manna are the effects of its operation on the stomach. Locke. Speculative painting, without the assistance of manual operation, can never attain to perfection. Dryden.

To beat rapidly and more strongly than usual; to throb; to bound with emotion or exertion; to pulsate violently; to flutter; -- said specifically of the heart when its action is abnormal, as from excitement.

on; a throbbing; esp., an abnormal, rapid beating of the heart as when excited by violent exertion, strong emotion, or by disease.

To breathe quickly or in a labored manner, as after exertion or from eagerness or excitement; to respire with heaving of the breast; to gasp. Pluto plants for breath from out his cell. Dryden.