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is ax. phpan, to slip, and Serenius refers it to the Su. Goth. 
slaepa, “ oblique et indirecte ferri.’’] Oblique; not perpen¬ 
dicular. It is generally used of acclivity or declivity ; form¬ 
ing an angle greater or less with the plane of the horizon. 
Murmuring waters fall 
Down the slope hills, dispers’d, or in a lake. 
That to the fringed bank with myrtle crown’d 
Her crystal mirror holds, unite their streams. Milton. 
SLOPE, .5. An oblique direction; any thing obliquely 
directed.—Declivity; ground cut or formed with declivity. 
My lord advances with majestic mien, 
And when up ten steep slopes you’ve dragg’d your thighs, 
Just at his study door he’ll bless your eyes. Pope. 
SLOPE, adv. Obliquely; not perpendicularly. 
Uriel 
Returned on that bright beam, whose point now rais’d 
Bore him slope downward to the sun, now fall’n. Milton. 
To SLOPE, v. a. To form to obliquity or declivity ; to 
direct obliquely. 
All night I slept, oblivious of my pain; 
Aurora dawn’d, and Phoebus shin’d in vain: 
Nor till oblique he slop'd his evening ray, 
Had Sonin us dry’d the balmy dews away. Pope. 
To SLOPE, v. n. To take an oblique or declivous di¬ 
rection. 
Betwixt the midst and these the gods assign’d 
Two habitable seats for human kind; 
And cross their limits cut a sloping way. 
Which the twelve signs in beautious order sway. Dry den. 
SLOPENESS, s. Obliquity; declivity; not perpendi¬ 
cularity.—The Italians give the cover a graceful pendence of 
slopeness, dividing the whole breadth into nine parts, where¬ 
of two shall serve for the elevation of the highest ridge. 
Wotton. 
SLO'PEWISE, adj. Obliquely ; not perpendicularly.— 
The Wear is a frith, reaching slopewise through the Ose 
from the land to low-water mark, and having in it a bent or 
cod with an eye-hook; where the fish entering, upon their 
coming back with the ebb, are stopped from issuing out 
again, forsaken by the water, and left dry on the Ose. 
Carew. 
SLO'PINGLY, adv. Obliquely; not perpendicularly.— 
These atoms do not descend always perpendicularly, but 
sometimes slopingly. Digby. 
SLO'PPY, adj. Miry and wet; perhaps rather slabby. 
See Slab. 
To SLOT, v. a. [sluta, Swed., to shut, applied to a door; 
sluyten, Teut, the same from slot, a bolt ] To strike or clash 
hard; to slam: as, to slot a door. An old Lincolnshire 
word. 
SLOT, s. [slod, Iceland, vestigia ferarum in nive. Lye, 
and Serenius. Saxon, jlaennje, vestigia ferarum. Mr. 
Tooke pronounces slot the past participle of the Sax. j litan, 
to slit. As slot is the print of the hoof upon the ground, 
this derivation seems just. Drayton, in the following passage, 
explains slot in the margin by “ the tract of the foot.”] The 
track of a deer. Milton uses it for track discoverable by the 
scent. 
Often from his [the hart’s] feed 
The dogs of him do find, or thorough skilful heed 
The huntsman by his slot, or breaking earth, perceives, 
Where he hath gone to lodge. Drayton. 
He leaves the noisome stench of his rude slot behind him. 
Milton. 
SLOTH, s. [plaeUtS, pelfS, Saxon.] Mr. Tooke consi¬ 
ders sloth as the third person singular of the verb plapian, to 
slow or make slow; i. e. that which sloweth. Our word 
was anciently written slowth, and also slouthi] —Slowness; 
tardiness. 
These cardinals trifle with me: I abhor 
This dilatory sloth and tricks of Rome. Shakspeare. 
Vol, XXIII. No. 1571. 
S L O 
Laziness; sluggishness; idleness. 
False of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand. 
Hog in sloth, fox in stealth. Shakspeare. 
An animal.—The sloth is an animal of so slow a motion, 
that he will be three or four days at least in climbing up and 
coming down a tree; and to go the length of fifty paces on 
plain ground, requires a whole day. Grew. See Bradypus. 
To SLOTH, v. n. To slug; to lie idle. Obsolete. 
Prompt. 
Some time he sloutheth on a daie. 
That he never after gefe maie. Gower.. 
SLO'THFUL, adj. Idle; lazy; sluggish; inactive; in¬ 
dolent ; dull of motion. 
Flora commands those nymphs and knights. 
Who liv’d in slothful ease and loose delights. 
Who never acts of honour durst pursue. 
The men inglorious knights, the ladies all untrue. Dryden. 
SLO'THFULLY, adv. Idly; lazily; with sloth. 
SLO'THFULNESS, s. Idleness; laziness; sluggishness; 
inactivity. Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep, and an 
idle soul shall suffer hunger. Prov. 
SLO'TTERY, adj. [slodderen, Teut.; flaccescere.] 
Squalid ; dirty ; untrimmed. Mr. Tyrwhitt reads flotery 
in the following passage, and explains it by floating, as hair 
dishevelled may be said to float upon the air. Mr. Urry and 
Mr. Warton both read slotery. The Italian rabbufata, 
which Mr. Tyrwhitt cites, certainly means dishevelled, but 
also shagged or rough. 
Palamon 
With slotery berde, and ruggy ashy heres. 
In clothes black. Chaucer. 
Foul; wet: as, slottery weather: a Cornish expression. 
Pryce. 
SLOUCH, s. [Dr. Johnson gives the Danish slojf, stupid, 
as the orgin. Mr. Tooke calls it the Sax. past participle 
piece, (meaning slack or slow,) from pleacian, tardare. 
Serenius gives “ slok, Sueth. homo vagus et negligens; 
sloka, propendere, caput demittere.” This is in unison with 
our acient usage of the word, viz., that of a lubber, a lazy 
fellow. See Sherwood in V. Slouch, and Cotgrave.] An 
idle fellow; one who is stupid, heavy, or clownish. 
Begin thy carrols then, thou vaunting slouch; 
Be thine the oaken staff, or mine the pouch. Gay. 
A downcast look; a depression of the head; an ungainly, 
clownish gait or manner.—Our doctor has every quality 
which can make a man useful; but, alas! he hath a sort of 
slouch in his walk. Swift. 
To SLOUCH, v.n. To have a downcast clownish look, 
gait, or manner. The awkward, negligent, clumsy, and 
slouching manner of a booby. Ld. Chesterfield. 
To SLOUCH, v. a. To depress; to press down: as, to 
slouch the hat. 
SLO'VEN, s. [sloef Dutch; yslyvn, Welsh, “ Slowcti, 
slouen, sloven the past participle of the Sax. plapian, to 
slow, make slow, or cause to be slow.” H. Tooke.] A 
man indecently negligent of cleanliness; a man dirtily 
dressed. 
You laugh, half beau, half sloven if I stand; 
My wig half powder, and all snuff my band. Pope. 
SLO'VENLINESS, s. Indecent negligence of dress; 
neglect of cleanliness.— Slovenliness is the worst sign of a 
hard student, and civility the best exercise of the remiss; yet 
not to be exact in the phrase of compliment, or gestures-of 
courtesy. Wotton. —Any negligence or carelessness.— 
Vander Cabel seems to have been a careless artist; and dis¬ 
covers great slovenliness in many of his works; but in those 
which he has studied, and carefully executed, there is great 
beauty. Gilpin. 
SLO'VENLY, adj. Negligent of dress; negligent of 
neatness; not neat; not cleanly: coarse.—A slovenly 
wincer of a confutation. Milton. —iEsop at last found out 
4 F a slovenly 
