Etymology From Middle English slouthe, slewthe (“laziness”), from Old English slǣwþ (“sloth, indolence, laziness, inertness, torpor”), from Proto-West Germanic *slaiwiþu, from Proto-Germanic *slaiwiþō (“slowness, lateness”), equivalent to slow + -th (abstract nominal suffix). Cognate with Scots sleuth (“sloth, slowness”).
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Laziness; slowness of mind; disinclination to action or labour; a feeling combining indifference and lethargy; a dragging idleness.
Hot summer days inspire a sense of sloth in me.
Who having ſpilt much blood, and don much waſte / Subduing Nations, and achievd thereby / Fame in the World, high titles, and rich prey, / Shall change thir courſe to pleaſure, eaſe, and ſloth, / Surfet, and luſt, till wantonneſs and pride / Raiſe out of friendſhip hoſtil deeds in Peace.1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 787–792:
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Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labour wears.1758, Benjamin Franklin, Preliminary Address to the Pennsylvania Almanac:
Mr. Elliot's frank statement that "sloth and untidiness are indefensible" is a sign that the task will be tackled with vigour.1953 April, “Arrears of Station Maintenance”, in Railway Magazine, page 217:
› Any animal in the suborder Folivora.
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Especially Any herbivorous, arboreal South American mammal of the families Choloepodidae and Bradypodidae, noted for its slowness and inactivity.
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Biology, History, Human sciences, Natural sciences, Paleontology, Sciences Any of the extinct group of ground sloths.
Etymology From Middle English slouthe, slewthe (“laziness”), from Old English slǣwþ (“sloth, indolence, laziness, inertness, torpor”), from Proto-West Germanic *slaiwiþu, from Proto-Germanic *slaiwiþō (“slowness, lateness”), equivalent to slow + -th (abstract nominal suffix). Cognate with Scots sleuth (“sloth, slowness”).
[…] the most of professors are for imbezzeling, mispending and slothing away their time, their talents, their opportunities to do good in […]1676, John Bunyan, The Strait Gate, or, Great Difficulty of Going to Heaven, London: Francis Smith, page 69:
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That you endeavour carefully to please your Lady, Master or Mistress, be faithful, diligent and submissive to them, encline not to sloth or laze in bed, but rise early in a morning.1677, Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid, London: T. Passinger, page 2: