slow

Meanings

1. 1
   adv

   without speed; 'slow' is sometimes used informally for 'slowly'

   They spoke slow to be better understood.

2. 2
   adv

   of timepieces

   the clock is almost an hour slow

3. 3
   adj

   (of business) not active or brisk

   business is dull (or slow)

4. 4
   adj

   at a slow tempo

   the band played a slow waltz

5. 5
   adj

   (used of timepieces) indicating a time earlier than the correct time

   the clock is slow

6. 6
   verb

   lose velocity

   move more slowly

7. 7
   verb

   become slow or slower

   Production slowed

8. 8
   verb

   cause to proceed more slowly

   The illness slowed them down.

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”).