Meanings
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1
adj
Not moving or happening quickly.
The traffic was very slow this morning.
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2
verb
To make or become slower.
The car slowed as it approached the corner.
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3
adj
Showing a time earlier than the real time.
My watch is five minutes slow.
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4
adj
Not busy or active.
Business is always slow in the winter.
Thesaurus
Common collocations
Etymology
From Middle English slow, slaw, from Old English slāw (“sluggish, inert, slothful, late, tardy, torpid, slow”), from Proto-West Germanic *slaiw, from Proto-Germanic *slaiwaz (“blunt, dull, faint, weak, slack”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *sleyH-u- (“bad”). Cognate with Scots slaw (“slow”), West Frisian sleau (“slow, dull, lazy”), Dutch sleeuw (“blunt, dull”), Low German slee (“dull, sluggish”), German schlehe, schleh (“dull, exhausted, faint”), Danish sløv (“dull, torpid, drowsy”), Swedish slö (“slack, lazy”), Icelandic sljór (“dim-witted, slow”).