slow
1. lose velocity;
move more slowly (Freq. 9)
- The car decelerated
• Syn:
decelerate, slow down, slow up, retard
• Ant:
accelerate (for: decelerate)
• Derivationally related forms:
retardation (for: retard), slowdown (for: slow down), slowing, deceleration (for: decelerate)
• Hypernyms:
decrease, diminish, lessen, fall
• Hyponyms:
slow down, slow up, delay, detain, hold up
• Verb Frames:
- Something ----s
- Somebody ----s
- Somebody ----s something
- Something ----s something
2. become slow or slower (Freq. 2)
- Production slowed
• Syn:
slow down, slow up, slack, slacken
• Derivationally related forms:
slack (for: slack), slowdown (for: slow down), slowing
• Hypernyms:
weaken
• Verb Frames:
- Something ----s
- Somebody ----s
3. cause to proceed more slowly (Freq. 1)
- The illness slowed him down
• Syn:
slow down, slow up
• Derivationally related forms:
slowdown (for: slow down)
• Hypernyms:
decelerate, slow down, slow up, retard
• Hyponyms:
bog down, bog, clog, constipate
• Verb Frames:
- Somebody ----s something
- Somebody ----s somebody
- Something ----s somebody
- Something ----s something
1. not moving quickly;
taking a comparatively long time (Freq. 23)
- a slow walker
- the slow lane of traffic
- her steps were slow
- he was slow in reacting to the news
- slow but steady growth
• Ant:
fast
• Similar to:
bumper-to-bumper, dilatory, laggard, poky, pokey,
pokey, lazy, long-play, long-playing, slow-moving,
sluggish, sulky
• See Also:
gradual, unhurried
• Derivationally related forms:
slowness
• Attrubites:
speed, swiftness, fastness
2. at a slow tempo (Freq. 3)
- the band played a slow waltz
• Ant:
fast
• Similar to:
adagio, andante, lento, lentissimo, largo,
larghetto, larghissimo, moderato
• Derivationally related forms:
slowness
• Topics:
music
3. slow to learn or understand;
lacking intellectual acuity (Freq. 1)
- so dense he never understands anything I say to him
- never met anyone quite so dim
- "although dull at classical learning, at mathematics he was uncommonly quick"- Thackeray
- dumb officials make some really dumb decisions
- he was either normally stupid or being deliberately obtuse
- worked with the slow students
• Syn:
dense, dim, dull, dumb, obtuse
• Similar to:
stupid
• Derivationally related forms:
slowness, obtuseness (for: obtuse), dumbness (for: dumb), dullness (for: dull), denseness (for: dense)
4. (used of timepieces) indicating a time earlier than the correct time
- the clock is slow
• Ant:
fast
5. so lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness
- a boring evening with uninteresting people
- the deadening effect of some routine tasks
- a dull play
- his competent but dull performance
- a ho-hum speaker who couldn't capture their attention
- "what an irksome task the writing of long letters is"- Edmund Burke
- tedious days on the train
- "the tiresome chirping of a cricket"- Mark Twain
- other people's dreams are dreadfully wearisome
• Syn:
boring, deadening, dull, ho-hum, irksome,
tedious, tiresome, wearisome
• Similar to:
uninteresting
• Derivationally related forms:
tiresomeness (for: tiresome), tedium (for: tedious), tediousness (for: tedious), dullness (for: dull), boringness (for: boring)
6. (of business) not active or brisk
- business is dull (or slow)
- a sluggish market
• Syn:
dull, sluggish
• Similar to:
inactive
• Derivationally related forms:
sluggishness (for: sluggish)
• Topics:
commercial enterprise, business enterprise, business
1. without speed ('slow' is sometimes used informally for 'slowly') (Freq. 2)
- he spoke slowly
- go easy here--the road is slippery
- glaciers move tardily
- please go slow so I can see the sights
• Syn:
slowly, easy, tardily
• Ant:
quickly (for: slowly)
• Derived from adjective:
slow (for: slowly)
• Usage Domain:
colloquialism
2. of timepieces
- the clock is almost an hour slow
- my watch is running behind
• Syn:
behind
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