| / English Dictionary |
SLOTH
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Apathy and inactivity in the practice of virtue (personified as one of the deadly sins)
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("sloth" is a kind of...):
deadly sin; mortal sin (an unpardonable sin entailing a total loss of grace)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Any of several slow-moving arboreal mammals of South America and Central America; they hang from branches back downward and feed on leaves and fruits
Synonyms:
sloth; tree sloth
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("sloth" is a kind of...):
edentate (primitive terrestrial mammal with few if any teeth; of tropical Central America and South America)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sloth"):
ai; Bradypus tridactylus; three-toed sloth (a sloth that has three long claws on each forefoot and each hindfoot)
Choloepus didactylus; two-toed sloth; unai; unau (relatively small fast-moving sloth with two long claws on each front foot)
Choloepus hoffmanni; two-toed sloth; unai; unau (a sloth of Central America that has two long claws on each forefoot and three long claws on each hindfoot)
Holonyms ("sloth" is a member of...):
Bradypodidae; family Bradypodidae (a family of edentates comprising the true sloths)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A disinclination to work or exert yourself
Synonyms:
sloth; slothfulness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("sloth" is a kind of...):
disinclination; hesitancy; hesitation; indisposition; reluctance (a certain degree of unwillingness)
Context examples:
Astonishingly, three-toed sloths, which are more specialized to their environment, expend as little as 460 kilojoules of energy a day, the equivalent of burning a mere 110 calories — roughly the same number of calories in a baked potato.
(Putting the sloth in sloths: Arboreal lifestyle drives slow pace, NSF)
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