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Habitually idle and lazy; slothful; dull; inactive; as, a sluggish man.

n to action; constantly engaged in action; energetic; diligent; busy; -- opposed to dull, sluggish, indolent, or inert; as, an active man of business; active mind; active zeal.

ion by pleasure, pain, or passion. "The apathy of despair." Macaulay. A certain apathy or sluggishness in his nature which led him . . . to leave events to take their own course. Prescott. According to the Stoics, apathy meant the extinction of the passions by the ascendency of reason. Fleming.

Sluggishly. [Obs.] Fotherby.

An inlet from the Gulf of Mexico, from a lake, or from a large river, sometimes sluggish, sometimes without perceptible movement except from tide and wind. [Southern U. S.] A dark slender thread of a bayou moves loiteringly northeastward into a swamp of huge cypresses. G. W. Cable.

Having qualities characteristic of oxen or cows; sluggish and patient; dull; as, a bovine temperament. The bovine gaze of gaping rustics. W. Black.

A large and commodious, but generally cumbrous and sluggish boat, used for journeys on the Ganges.

To live in, or as in, a den. The sluggish salvages that den below. G. Fletcher.

The quality of being dilatory; lateness; slowness; tardiness; sluggishness.

Marked by procrastination or delay; tardy; slow; sluggish; -- said of actions or measures. Alva, as usual, brought his dilatory policy to bear upon hiMotley. Dilatory plea (Law), a plea designed to create delay in the trial of a cause, generally founded upon some matter not connected with the merits of the case.…

Affected by "dope"; esp., sluggish or dull as though under the influence of a narcotic. [Slang]

Drowsy; inclined to doze; sleepy; sluggish; as, a dozy head. Dryden.

To work sluggishly or slowly; to plod. [Obs.]

Like a drone; sluggish; lazy.

To be sluggish or lazy; to be confused. [Obs.] Shak.

Slow in action; sluggish; unready; awkward. This people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing. Matt. xiii. 15. O, help my weak wit and sharpen my dull tongue. Spenser.

In a dull manner; stupidly; slowly; sluggishly; without life or spirit. Supinely calm and dully innocent. G. Lyttelton.

The state or quality of being heavy in its various senses; weight; sadness; sluggishness; oppression; thickness.

Slow; sluggish; inactive; or lifeless, dull, inanimate, stupid; as, a heavy gait, looks, manners, style, and the like; a heavy writer or book. Whilst the heavy plowman snores. Shak. Of a heavy, dull, degenerate mind. Dryden. Neither [is] his ear heavy, that it can not hear. Is. lix. 1.

Idleness; habitual indisposition to action or exertion; want of energy; sluggishness. The gloomy inactivity of despair. Cook.