ponderous

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   having great mass and weight and unwieldiness

   a ponderous stone

2. 2
   adj

   labored and dull

   a ponderous speech

3. 3
   adj

   Heavy, massive, weighty.

   [H]e saw, at the end of a shallow embrasure, a ponderous door of dark wood, braced with iron.

4. 4
   adj

   Serious, onerous, oppressive.

   It was Dryden's opinion . . . that the drama required an alternation of comick and tragick scenes; and that it is necessary to mitigate, by alleviations of merriment, the pressure of ponderous events, and the fatigue of toilsome passions.

5. 5
   adj

   Clumsy, unwieldy, or slow, especially due to weight.

   [T]he inmates of the coach, by numerous hard, painful joltings, and ponderous, dragging trundlings, are suddenly made sensible of some great change in the character of the road.

6. 6
   adj

   Dull, boring, tedious; long-winded in expression.

   Over supper the minister did unbend a little into one or two ponderous jokes.

7. 7
   adj

   Characterized by or associated with pondering.

   Ponderous thoughts take hold of the heart; musing maketh the fire to burn, and steady sight hath the greatest influence upon us.

8. 8
   adj

   slow and laborious because of weight

Etymology

Ultimately from Latin ponderōsus (“weighty”).