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294 
a slovenly lazy fellow, lolling at his ease-as if he had 
nothing to do. L'Estrange. 
SLO'VENLY, adv. In a course inelegant manner.—As 
I hang my clothes on somewhat slovenly, 1 no sooner went 
in but he frowned upon me. Pope. 
SLO'VENRY, s. Dirtiness; want of neatness. 
Our gayness and our gilt are all besmirch’d 
With rainy marching in the painful field: 
There’s not a piece of feather in our host. 
And time hath worn us into slovenry. Shalcspeare. 
SLOUGEA, a village of Tunis, on the northern bank of 
the Megesdah j 12 miles north-east of Tunis. 
SLOUGH, s. [floj, Saxon; the past participle of 
pleacian, pleacgian, to slow or cause to be slow; ch being 
changed intog-A; flog, i. e. slow (water). Mr. H. Tooke.] 
A deep miry place; a hole full of dirt. 
The ways being foul, twenty to one, 
He ! s here stuck in a slough, and overthrown. Milton. 
The skin which a serpent casts off at his periodical 
renovation, [perhaps from sleek. Neither Dr. Johnson, 
nor other lexicographers, give an etymon of this meaning.] 
When the mind is quicken’d, 
The organs, though defunct and dead before. 
Break up their drowsy grave, and newly move, 
With casted slough and fresh legerity. Shakspeare. 
It is used by Shakspeare simply for the skin. 
As the snake, roll’d in a flowery bank. 
With shining checker’d slough, doth sting a child. 
That for the beauty thinks it excellent. Shakspeare. 
The part that separates from a foul sore.—At the next 
dressing I found a slough come away with the dressings, 
which was the sordes. Wiseman. 
To SLOUGH, v. n. To part from the sound flesh. A 
cliirurgical term. 
SLOUGH, a village of England, in Buckinghamshire. 
The celebrated Dr. Herschell has here his residence and 
observatory, where he has for many years pursued his as¬ 
tronomical studies. The village is noted for its inns. Mar¬ 
ket on Thursday; 21 miles west of London. 
SLO'UGHA, adj. Miry; boggy; muddy.—That cus¬ 
tom should not be allowed, of cutting scraws in low grounds 
sloughy underneath, which turn into bog. Swift. 
SLOW, adj. [flap, flaep, Saxon, which Mr. Tooke con¬ 
siders as the past participle of fleacian. Dr. Johnson 
notices the ancient Frisick sleeuw: to which may be added 
the Swed. sloe, and Icel. sliouri] Not swift; not quick of 
motion ; not speedy; not having velocity; wanting celerity. 
Me thou think’st not slow. 
Who since the morning-hour set out from heaven, 
Where God resides and on mid-day arriv’d 
In Eden, distance inexpressible. Milton. 
Late; not happening in a short time. 
These changes in the heav’ns, though slow, produc’d 
Like change on sea and land. Milton. 
Not ready ; not prompt; not quick.—Mine ear shall not 
be slow, mine eye not shut. Milton. —Dull; inactive; 
tardy; sluggish. 
Fix’d on defence, the Trojans are not slow 
To guard their shore from an expected foe. "Dryden. 
Not hasty • acting with deliberation; not vehement.— 
The Lord is merciful, and slow to anger. Common Prayer .— 
Dull; heavy in wit.—The blockhead is a slow worm. Pope. 
SLOW, in composition, is an adverb, slowly. —For eight 
«/o»-circling years by tempests tost. Pope. 
Some demon urg’d 
T’ explore the fraud with guile oppos’d to guile, 
S/oze-pacing thrice around the insidious pile. Pope. 
To SLOW, v. a. To omit by dilaloriness; to delay ; to 
procrastinate. Not now in use. 
Now do you know the reason of this haste ? 
—I would I knew not why it should be slow. Shakspeare. 
S L U 
SLOW, s. [flip, Saxon, tinea.] A moth. Obsolete. 
“ It is a slowe." Chaucer. 
SLOWAKS, or Slawenzi, one of the principal races of 
Sclavonian descent, settled in the Austrian empire, and 
supposed to be descendants of the Bohemians and Mo¬ 
ravians, who, in the middle ages, extended their settlements 
over a considerable track of country. They are found in the 
north-west of Hungary, in the east and south of Moravia, 
and in Austrian Silesia; they are traced also, but in smaller 
proportions, in Austrian Poland and the Buckowine. Their 
settlement in Hungary took place in the 14th and 15th 
centuries. They are in general an uneducated and ignorant 
race, piquing themselves on a display of finery, and exhibit¬ 
ing, on their great festivals, a curious assemblage of grotesque 
ornaments. See Sclavonia. 
SLOWBACK, s. A lubber; an idle fellow. Cotgrave, 
and Sherwood. —The slowbacks and lazie bones will none 
of this. Favour. 
SLOWLY, adv. [Sax. flaulice.] Not speedily; not 
with celerity ; not with velocity. 
The gnome rejoicing bears her gifts away, 
Spreads his black wings, and slowly mounts to day. Pope. 
Not soon; not early; not in a little time.—The poor 
remnant of human seed peopled their country again slowly 
by little and little. Bacon. 
Our fathers bent their baneful industry 
To check a monarchy that slowly grew ; 
But did not France or Holland’s fate foresee, 
Whose rising power to swift dominion flew. Dry den. 
We oft our slowly growing works impart. 
While images reflect from art to art. Pope. 
Not hastily ; not rashly : as, he determines slowly. Not 
promptly; not readily: as he learns slowly. Tardily; 
sluggishly.—The chapel of St. Laurence advances so very 
slowly, that ’tis not impossible but the family of Medicis 
may be extinct before their burial-place is finished. Addison. 
SLOWNESS, s. Smallness of motion; not speed; 
want of velocity; absence of celerity or swiftness.—Motion 
is the absolute mode of a body, but swiftness or slowness 
are relative ideas. Watts. —Length of time in which any 
thing acts or is brought to pass; not quickness.—Tyrants 
use what art they cau to increase the slowness of death. 
Hooker. —Dulness to admit conviction or affection.—Christ 
would not heal their infirmities, because of the hardness and 
slowness of their hearts, in that they believed him not. 
Bentley. —Want of promptness; want of readiness. 
Deliberation; cool delay. Dilatoriness; procrastination. 
SLO'WORM, s. [pla])-]>ypm, Saxon.] The blind worm; 
a small kind of viper, not mortal, scarcely venomous.— 
Though we have found formed snakes in the belly of the 
c acedia, or slowworm, yet may the viper emphatically bear 
the name. Brown. 
To SLU'BBER, v. a. To do any thing lazily, imper¬ 
fectly, or with idle hurry—Nature shewed she doth not like 
men, who slubber up matters of mean account. Sidney. 
Bassanio told him, he would make some speed 
Of his return: he answer'd. Do not so, 
Slubber not business for my sake. Shakspeare. 
To stain; to daub. [This seems to be from slobber, 
slabber, or slaver .]—You must be content to slubber the 
gloss of your new fortunes with this more stubborn and 
boisterous expedition. Shakspeare. 
O love, how sweet thou look’st now, and how gentle! 
I should haye slubber'd thee, and stain’d thy beauty. 
Beautn. and FI. 
Lady, I ask your pardon, whose virtue I have 
Slubbered with my tongue. Beaum and FI. 
To cover coarsely or carelessly. This is now not in use, 
otherwise than as a low colloquial word.—A man of secret 
ambitious ends of his own, and of proportionate counsels, 
smothered under the habit of a scholar, and slubbered 
over with a certain rude and clownish fashion that had the 
semblance of integrity. Wotton. 
