sloth

[slawth or especially for 2, slohth] /slɔθ or especially for 2, sloʊθ/

noun

habitual disinclination to exertion; indolence; laziness.

any of several slow-moving, arboreal, tropical American edentates of the family Bradypodidae, having a long, coarse, grayish-brown coat often of a greenish cast caused by algae, and long, hooklike claws used in gripping tree branches while hanging or moving along in a habitual upside-down position.

a pack or group of bears.

Origin

1125-75; Middle English slowth (see slow, -th¹); replacing Old English slǣwth, derivative of slǣw, variant of slāw slow

Synonyms

1. shiftlessness, idleness, slackness.

Examples from the web for sloth

The only real sin at play here is sloth--that is, the sloth of the pastry chefs who come up with these one-note menus.
Both are afflicted with a species of blindness, and intellectual sloth.
What makes the film so disappointing is not its errors of fact but the sullen sloth with which its episodes unfold.
Yet the filmmakers hold out the possibility of new life stirring under the domestic halter and the intellectual sloth.

British Dictionary definitions for sloth

sloth

/sləʊθ/

noun

any of several shaggy-coated arboreal edentate mammals of the family Bradypodidae, esp Bradypus tridactylus (three-toed sloth or ai) or Choloepus didactylus (two-toed sloth or unau), of Central and South America. They are slow-moving, hanging upside down by their long arms and feeding on vegetation

reluctance to work or exert oneself

Word Origin

Old English slǣwth; from slǣw, variant of slāwslow

Word Origin and History for sloth

late 12c., "indolence, sluggishness," formed from Middle English slou, slowe (see slow (adj.)) + abstract formative -th (2). Replaced Old English slæwð "sloth, indolence." Sense of "slowness, tardiness" is from mid-14c. As one of the deadly sins, it translates Latin accidia.

The slow-moving mammal first so called 1610s, a translation of Portuguese preguiça "slowness, slothfulness," from Latin pigritia "laziness" (cf. Spanish perezosa "slothful," also "the sloth").