Slōth or Slŏth1, n.
(20), n. [A.-S. slewdh, slāwdh, from slaw, slow, q. v.]
Sense 1. Slowness; tardiness.
This dilatory sloth and tricks of Rome. Shak.
Sense 2. Disinclination to action or labor; sluggishness; laziness; idleness.
They change their course to pleasure, ease, and sloth. Milton. Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears. Franklin.
Sense 3. (Zoöl.) A tardigrade edentate mammal of the genus Bradypus, which comprises only two species, B. tridactylus or ai, about the size of a common cat, and B. didactylus or unau, about half the size of the former, both of South America.
Sloth (Bradypus tridactylus).
These animals are so called from the remarkable slowness of their motions. They feed on vegetables. The living sloths are arboreal species, while many of the extinct kinds were huge terrestrial animals.
