May hypocrites, That slily speak one thing, another think, A thin slim-gutted fox made a hard shift to wrig gle his body into a henroost; and when he had stuft his guts well, squeezed hard to get out again; but the hole was too little. L'Estrange. I was jogged on the elbow by a slim young girl of seventeen. Addison. LIME. n. s. [rlim, Sax. sligm, Dut.] Viscous mire; any glutinous substance. The higher Nilus swells The more it promises: as it ebbs, the seedsman Upon the slime and ooze scatters his grain. Shak. Brick for stone, and slime for mortar. Genesis God, out of his goodness, caused the wind to blow, to dry up the abundant slime and mud of the earth, and make the land more firm, and to cleanse the air of thick vapours and unwholesome mists. Raleigh. Some plants grow upon the top of the sea, from some concretion of slime where the sun beateth Milton's Par. Lost. O foul descent! I'm now constrain'd Into a beast, to mix with bestial slime, This essence to incarnate and imbrute. At one sling Dryden's Ovid. Of thy victorious arm, well-pleasing son, 3. A kind of hanging bandage, in which a To SLING. v. a. [from the noun.] 2. To throw; to cast. Not very proper. To prevent a mare's slinking her foal, in snowy weather keep her where she may have good spring water to drink. Mortimer. To SLIP. v. n. [rlipan, Sax. slippen, Dut.] 1. To slide; not to tread firm. If a man walks over a narrow bridge when he is drunk, it is no wonder that he forgets his caution while he overlooks his danger; but he who is sober, and views that nice separation between himself and the devouring deep, so that, if he should slip, he sees his grave gaping under him, surely must needs take every step with horror and the utinost caution. South. A skilful dancer on the ropes slips willingly, and makes a seeming stumble, that you may think him in great hazard, while he is only giving you a proof of his dexterity. Dryden. If after some distinguish'd leap 2. To slide; to glide. Oh Ladon, happy Ladon! rather slide than run by her, lest thou shouldst make her legs slip from her. Sidney. They trim their feathers, which makes them oily and slippery, that the water may slip off them. Mortimer. 3. To move or fly out of place. Sometimes the ancle-bone is apt to turn out on either side, by reason of relaxation, which though you reduce, yet, upon the least walking on it, the bone slips out again. Wiseman. 4. To sneak; to slink. From her most beastly company I 'gan refrain, in mind to slip away, was sore troubled. 4. To move by means of a rope. SLIMINESS. n. s. [from slimy.] Viscosity; glutinous matter. By a weak fermentation a pendulous sliminess is produced, which answers a pituitous state. Floyer. SLIMY. adj. [from slime.] 1 Overspread with slime. My bended hook shall pierce Their slimy jaws; and, as I draw them up, Shakesp. Some lay in dead men's skulls; and in those holes, They have cobwebs about them, which is a sign of a slimy dryness. Bacon. The rest are all by bad example led, 2. Viscous; glutinous. Philips. Then both from out hell gates, into the waste, Tost up and down, together crowded drove. Milt. The astrological undertakers would raise men like vegetables, out of some fat and slimy soil, well digested by the kindly heat of the sun, and impregnated with the influence of the stars. Bentley. SLINESS. n. s. [from sly.] Designing arti fice. Conus I saw amidst the shouts Of mariners, and busy care to sling Dryden's Cleomenes. We will slink away in supper time, disguise us Pope. A weasel once made shift to slink To SLINK. v. a. To cast; to miscarry of. Prior. I'll slip down out of my lodging. Dryd. D. Seb. Thus one tradesman slips away, To give his partner fairer play. 5. To glide; to pass unexpectedly or imperceptibly. it. The banks of either side seeming arms of the loving earth, that fain would embrace it, and the river a wanton nymph, which still would slip from Sidney. The blessing of the Lord shall slip from thee, without doing thee any good, if thou hast not ceased from doing evil. Taylor. Slipping from thy mother's eye, thou went'st On points and questions fitting Moses' chair. Milt. None but my Ceyx could appear so fair, I would have strain'd him with a strict embrace; 6. To fall into fault or errour. If he had been as you, Some mistakes may have slipt into it; but others will be prevented. Pope. 8. To escape; to fall away out of the me mory. By the hearer it is still presumed, that if they be let slip for the present, what good soever they contain is 1 st, and that without all hope of reco-3. very. Hooker. One ill man may not think of the mischief he could do, or slip the occasion. L'Estrange. To slip the market, when thus fairly offered, is great imprudence. Collier. For watching eccasions to correct others in their discourse, and not to ship any opportunity of shewing their talents, scholars are most blamed. Locke. Thus far my author has slipt his first design; not a letter of what has been yet said promoting any ways the trial. Atterbury. 3. To part twigs from the main body by laceration. The runners spread from the master roots, and have little sprouts or roots to them, which, being cut four or five inches long, make excellent sets: the branches also may be slipped and planted. Mortimer's Husb. 4. To escape from; to leave slily. This bird you aim'd at, though you hit it not. -Oh, sir, Lucentio slipp'd me like his greyhound, Which runs himself, and catches for his mister. Shakesp. 5. To let loose. Lighting upon a very easy slip 1 have made, in putting one seemingly indifferent word for another, that discovery opened to me this present view. Locke. Any little slip is more conspicuous and observable in a good man's conduct than in another's, as is not of a piece with his character. Addis. Spect. A twig torn from the main stock. it In truth, they are fewer, when they come to be discussed by reason, than otherwise they seem, when by heat of contention they are divided into many slips, and of every branch an heap is made. Hooker. The slips of their vines have been brought into Spain. Abbot. Adoption strives with nature, and choice breeds A native slip to us from foreign seeds. Shakesp. Thy mother took into her blameful bed Some stern untutor'd churl, and noble stock Was graft with crab-tree slip, whose fruit thou art Shakesp. Trees are a parelled with flowers or herbs by boring holes in their bodies, and putting into them earth holpen with muck, and setting seeds or slips of violets in the earth. Bacon. So have I seen some tender slip, Sav'd with care from winter's nip, The pride of her carnation train, Pluck'd up by some unheedy swain. Milton They are propagated not only by the seed, but many also by the root, and some by slips or cuttings. Ray on the Creation. 4. A leash or string in which a dog is held, from its being so made as to slip or become loose by relaxation of the hand. I see you stand like grey hounds in the slips, Straining upon the start. Shakesp Hen. V. God is said to harden the heart permissively, but not operatively, nor effectively; as he who only lets loose a greyhound out of the slip, is said to hound him at the hare. Bramhall. 5. An escape; a desertion. I know not whether to give the slip be not originally taken from a dog, that runs and leaves the string or slip in the leader's hand. The more shame for her goodyship, To give so near a friend the slip. Hudibras. The daw did not like his companion, and gave him the slip, and away into the woods. L'Estrange. Their explications are not yours, and will give Locke. you the slip. 6. A long narrow piece. Between these eastern and western mountains lies a slip of lower ground, which runs across the islaud. Addison. SLIPBOARD. n. s. [slip and board.] board sliding in grooves. A I ventured to draw back the slipboard on the roof, contrived on purpose to let in air. Gulliv. Travels. SLIPKNOT. n. s. [slip and knot.] A bowknot; knot easily untied. They draw off so much line as is necessary, and fasten the rest upon the line-rowl with a slipknot, that no more line turn off. Moron's Mech. Exerc. In large wounds a single knot first; over this a little linen compress, on which is another single knot; and then a slipknot, which may be loosened upon inflammation. SLIPPER or Slipshoe. n. s [from slip.] 1. A shoe without leather behind, into which the foot slips easily. Shakesp. A gown made of the finest wool, With buckles of the purest gold. Raleigh. And the press'd watch return'd a silver sound, Pope. Alonzo, mark the characters; And if th' impostor's pen have made a slip That shews it counterfeit, mark that and save me. Dryden. SLIPPER. adj. [rlipun, Sax.] Slippery; not firm. Obsolete. Perhaps never in use but for poetical convenience. What! this a sleeve? Here s snip and nip, and slish and slash, Like to a censor in a barber's shop. Shakesp o SLIT. v. a. pret. and part slit and slitted. [rlitan, Sax.] To cut longwise. To make plants medicinable, slit the root, and infuse into it the medicine, as hellebore, opium, scammony, and then bind it up. Bacon's Nat. Hist. The deers of Arginusa had their ears divided, occasioned at first by slitting the ears. Brown's Vulg. Err. Had it hit Hudibras. The upper part of him, the blow Had slit, as sure as that below. We slit the preternatural body open. Wisem. Surg. A liberty might be left to the judges to inflict death, or some notorious mark, by slitting the nose, or brands upon Temple. the cheeks. If a tinned or plated body, which, being of an even thickness, appears all over of an uniform colour, should be slit into threads, or broken into fragments of the same thickness with the plate, I see no reason why every thread or fragment should not keep its colour. Newton's Opticks. He took a freak Swift To slit my tongue, and make me speak. IT. n. s. [plit, Sax.] A long cut, or narrow opening. In St. James's fields is a conduit of brick, unto which joineth a low vault, and at the end of that a round house of stone and in the brick conduit there is a window, and in the round house a slit or rift of some little breadth: if you cry out in the rift, it will make a fearful roaring at the window. Bacon. Where the tender rinds of trees disclose Their shooting gems, a swelling knot there grows: Just in that place a narrow slit we make, Then other buds from bearing trees we take : Inserted thus, the wounded rind we close. Dryd. I found, by looking through a slit or oblong hole, which was narrower than the pupil of my eye, and eld close to it parallel to the prisms. I could see he circles much distincter, and visible to a far greater number, than otherwise. Newton. SLIVE. v. a. [rlipan, Sax.] To SLIVER. split; to divide longwise; to tear off longwise. Liver of blaspheming Jew; Stiver'd in the moon's eclipse. Shak. Macbeth. IVER. n. s. [from the verb.] A branch corn off. Sliver, in Scotland, still denotes slice cut off: as, he took a large sliver of the beef. There on the pendent boughs her coronet weed lamb'ring to hang, an envious sliver broke, When down her weedy coronet and herself Fell in the weeping brook. Shakesp. Hamlet. OATS. n. s. Of a cart, are those underpieces which keep the bottom together. Bailey. O'BBER. n. s. [glavocrio, Welsh.] Slaver. See SLAVER. SLOCK. v. n. [slock to quench, Swed. and Scott.] To slake; to quench. OE. n. s. [rla, Sax. slaae, Dan.] The ruit of the blackthorn, a small wild plum. The fair pomegranate might adorn the pine, he grape the bramble, and the sloe the vine. Black. When you fell your underwoods, sow haws and es in them, and they will furnish you, without oing of your woods any hurt. Mortim. Husbandry. OOP. n. s. A small vessel furnished with ne mast. Falconer's Dict. SLOP. v. a. [from lap, lop, slop.] To Irink grossly and greedily. OP. n. s. [from the verb.] Mean and ile liquor of any kind. Generally some Lauseous or useless medicinal liquor. The sick hushand here wanted for neither slops | nor doctors. L'Estrange. But thou, whatever slops she will have bought, Be thankful. Dryden's Juvenal. SLOP. n. s. [rlop, Sax. sloove, Dut. a covering.] Trowsers; open breeches. What said Mr. Dombledon about the sattin for my short cloak and slops? Shakesp. Hen. IV. SLOPE. adj. [This word is not derived from any satisfactory original. Junius omits it: Skinner derives it from slap lax, Dutch; and derives it from the curve of a loose rope. Perhaps its original may be latent in loopen, Dut. to run, slope being easy to the runner.] Oblique; not perpendicular. It is generally used of acclivity or declivity, forming an angle greater or less with the plane of the horizon. Where there is greater quantity of water, and space enough, the water moveth with a sloper rise and fall. Murm'ring waters fall Bacon. Down the slope hills, dispers'd, or in a lake, SLOPE. n. s. [from the adjective.] 1. An oblique direction; any thing obliquely directed. 2. Declivity; ground cut or formed with declivity. Growing upon slopes is caused for that moss, as it cometh of moisture, so the water must but slide, not be in a pool. Bacon. My lord advances with majestick mien, And when up ten steep slopes you've dragg'd your thighs, Just at his study door he'll bless your eyes. Pope. SLOPE. adv. Obliquely; not perpendicularly. Uriel Return'd on that bright beam, whose point now rais'd Bore him slope downward to the sun, now fall'n. Milton. To SLOPE. v. a. [from the adjective.] To form to obliquity or declivity; to direct obliquely. Though bladed corn be lodg'd, and trees blown Though palaces and pyramids do slope Driv'n backward, slope their pointing spires, and roll'd In billows, leave i' th' midst a horrid vale. Milton. All night I slept, oblivious of my pain; Pope's Odyssey. To SLOPE. v. n. To take an oblique or declivous direction. Betwixt the midst and these, the gods assign'd Two habitable seats for human kind; There is a handsome work of piles made sloping athwart the river, to stop the trees which are cut down and cast into the river. Brown's Travels. Up starts a palace, lo! th' obedient base Slopes at its foot, the woods its sides embrace. Pope. There is a straight hole in every ant's nest half an inch deep; and then it goes down sloping into a place where they have their magazine. Addis. Spect. On the fourth aspect of a sloping hill, Whose skirts meand'ring Peneus washes stil!, Our pious lab'rer pass'd his youthful days In peace and charity, in pray'r and praise. Harte SLO PENESS. n. s. [from slope.] Obliquity. declivity; not perpendicularity. The Italians give the cover a graceful pendence of slopeness, dividing the whole breadth into nine parts, whereof two shall serve for the elevation of the highest ridge. Wotton's Architecture. SLO PEWISE. adv. [slope and wise.] Obliquely; not perpendicularly. The Wear is a frith, reaching slopewise through the Ose from the land to low-water mark, and having in it a bent or cod with an eye-hook; where the fish entering, upon their coming back with the ebb, are stopped from issuing out again, forsaken by the water, and left dry on the use. Carew. SLOPINGLY.adv. [from sloping.] Obliquely; not perpendicularly. These atoms do not descend always perpendicularly, but sometimes slopingly. Digby on the Soul. SLO'PPY. adj. [from slop.] Miry and wet: perhaps rather slabby. See SLAB. To SLOT. v. a. [slughen, Dut.] To strike or clash hard. SLOT. n. s. [slod, Island.] The track of a deer. SLOTH. n. s. [rlæpð, slepð, Sax. It might therefore be not improperly written sloath, but that it seems better to regard the orthography of the primitive slow.] 1. Slowness; tardiness. These cardinals trifle with me: I abhor This dilatory sloth and tricks of Rome. Shakesp. Hen. VIII 2. Laziness; sluggishness; idleness. False of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand, Hog in sloth, fox in stealth. Shakesp. King Lear. They change their course to pleasure, ease, and sloth. Milton. Industry approach'd, And rous'd him from his miserable sloth. Thomson's Autumn. 3. An animal. The sloth is an animal of so slow a motion that he will be three or four days at least in climbing up and coming down a tree; and to go the length of fifty paces on plain ground, requires a whole day. Grew. SLO'THFUL. adj. [sloth and full.] Idle; lazy; sluggish; inactive; indolent; dull of motion. He that is slothful in his work, is brother to him that is a great waster. Prov. xviii. 9. The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour. Prov. xxi. 25. To vice industrious; but to nobler deeds Timorous and slothful. Milton. Flora commands those nymphs and knights, Who liv'd in slothful ease and loose delights, Who never acts of honour durst pursue, The men inglorious knights, the ladies all untrue. Dryden. The very soul of the slothful does effectually but lie drowsing in his body, and the whole man is totally given up to his senses. L'Estrange. Another is deaf to all the motives to piety, by indulging an idle slothful temper. Law. SLO'THFULLY. adv. [from slothful.] Idly ; lazily; with sloth. SLO'THFULNESS. n. s. [from slothful.] Idleness; laziness; sluggishness; inactivity. To trust to lahour without prayer, argueth impiety and prophaneness; it maketh light of the providence of God and although it be not the intent of a religious mind, yet it is the fault of those men whose religion wanteth light of a mature judgment to direct it, when we join with our prayer slothfulness, and neglect of convenient la bour. Hooke SLOUCH. n. s. [sloff, Dan. stupid.] The body, which we leave behind in this visible world, is as the womb or slough fron, whence we issue, and are born into the other. Grew's Cosmol. Now do you know the reason of this haste? -I would I knew not why it should be slow'd. 1. A downcast look; a depression of the 3. It is used by Shakespeare simply for the SLOWLY. adv. [from slow.] Our doctor has every quality that can make a man useful; but alas he hath a sort of slouch in his walk. Swift. 2. A man who looks heavy and clownish. Begin thy carols then, thou vaunting slouch; Be thine the oaken staff, or mine the pouch. Gay. To SLOUCH. v. n. [from the noun.] To have a downcast clownish look. SLOVEN. n. s. [sloef, Dut. yslyvn, Welsh, nasty, shabby.] A man indecently negligent of cleanliness; a man dirtily dressed. The ministers came to church in handsome holiday apparel, and that himself did not think them bound by the law of God to go like slovens. Hooker. Affect in things about thee cleanliness, That all may gladly board thee as a flow'r : Slovens take up their stock of noisomeness Beforehand, and anticipate their last hour. skin. As the snake, roll'd in a flow'ry bank, Shakesp. Hen. VI. SLOW. adj. [rlap, rleap, Sax. sleeuw, Herbert. Not swift; not quick of motion; not You laugh, half beau, half sloven, if I stand; My wig half powder, and all snuff my band. Pope. Their methods various, but alike their aim; The sloven and the fopling are the same. Young. SLOVENLINESs. n. s. [from slovenly.] Indecent negligence of dress; neglect of cleanliness. Slovenliness is the worst sign of a hard student, and civility the best exercise of the remiss; yet not to be exact in the phrase of compliment, or gestures of courtesy. Wotton. SLOVENLY. ade. [from sloven.] Negligent of dress; negligent of neatness; not neat; not cleanly. Esop at last found out a slovenly lazy fellow, lolling at his ease, as if he had nothing to do. L'Estrange. SLOVENLY. adj. [from sloven.] In a coarse inelegant manner. As I hang my clothes on somewhat slovenly, I no sooner went in but he frowned upon me. Pope. SLOVENRY. n. s. [from sloven.] Dirtiness; want of neatness. Our gayness and our guilt are all besmirch'd Shakesp. Hen. V. SLOUGH. n. s. [rlog, Sax.] The Scots were in a fallow field, whereinto the English could not enter, but over a cross ditch and a slough; in passing whereof many of the English horse were plunged, and some mired. Hayward. The ways being foul, twenty to one He's here stuck in a slough, and overthrown. Milt. A carter had laid his waggon fast in a slough. L'Estrange. 2. The skin which a serpent casts off at his periodical renovation. Thy fates o, en their hands, let thy blood and spirit embrace them; and to inure thyself to what thou art like to be, cast thy humble slough, and appear fresh. Shakesp. Twelfth Night. When the mind is quicken'd, The organs, though defunct and dead before, Break up their drowsy grave, and newly move, With casted slough, and fresh legerity. Shakesp. Oh let not sleep my closing eyes invade In open plains, or in the secret shade, Erect, and brandishing his forky tongue. Dryden The slough of an English viper, that is, the cuticula, they cast off twice every year, at spring and fall: the separation begins at the head, and is finished in twenty-four hours. Grew. 2. Me thou think'st not slow, Who since the morning hour set out from heav'n, Late; not happening in a short time. The slow of speech make in dreams unpremeditated harangues, or converse readily in languages that they are but little acquainted with. Addison. For though in dreadful whirls we hung High on the broken wave, I knew thou wert not slow to hear, Addison. 4. Dull; inactive; tardy; sluggish. Fix'd on defence, the Trojans are not slow To guard their shore from an expected foe. Drud. 5. Not hasty; acting with deliberation; not vehement. The Lord is merciful, and slow to anger. Common Prayer. He that is slow to wrath, is of great understanding. Prov. The politick and wise Shakee 1. Not speedily; not with celerity; ra with velocity. 2. The gnome rejoicing bears her gift away, Spreads his black wings, and slowly mounts to da Not soon; not early; not in a little time. 3. Not hastily; not rashly: as, he deter mines slowly. 4. Not promptly; not readily: as, he learns slowly. 5. Tardily; sluggishly. The chapel of St. Laurence advances so re slowly, that 'tis not impossible but the family Medicis may be extinct before their burial place is finished. Addison en lig. SLOWNESS. n. s. [from slow.] 1. Smallness of motion; not speed; wart of velocity; absence of celerity or swi ness. Providence hath confined these human hearts that what any invention hath in the strength of motion, is abated in the slowness of it: and whe it hath in the extraordinary quickness of its =tion, must be allowed for in the great strength the is required unto it. Wilkins's Mathematical Mag Motion is the absolute mode of a body, 20 swiftness or slowness are relative ideas. 2. Length of time in which any thing at or is brought to pass; not quickness, Tyrants use what art they can to increase 14 Ho slowness of death. 3. Dulness to admit conviction or affectie Christ would not heal their infirmities, beca of the hardness and slowness of their hearts, in da they believed him not. Bentley's Serm 4. Want of promptness; want of readiness 5. Deliberation; cool delay. 6. Dilatoriness; procrastination. SLOWWORM. n. s. [rlapуnn, Sax.] Th blind worm; a large viper, not morta scarcely venomous. Though we have found formed snakes in t belly of the cæcilia, or slowworm, yet may the vie emphatically bear the name. Brown's Vulg. E Are sly slow things with circumspective eyes. Pope. To SLU'BBER. v a. [probably from lubber. 6. Dull; heavy in wit. 1. To do any thing lazily, imperfectly, t with idle hurry. T'explore the fraud with guile oppos'd to guile, Slow-pacing thrice around th' insidious pile. Pope. Nature shewed she doth not like men who ge ber up matters of mean account. S Bassanio told him, he would make some spert Of his return: he answer'd, do not so, Slubber not business for my sake. Shakesp. Merchant of Text As they are slubbered over, the malignite the remains will show itself in some chronick disease. Wiseman's Surgery 2. To stain; to daub. [This seems to be from slobber, slabber, or slaver.] You must be content to slubber the gloss of you new fortunes with this more stubborn and boister ous expedition. Shaker now not in use, otherwise than as a low colloquial word. To SLOW. v. a. [from the adjective.] To 3. To cover coarsely or carelessly. This i A man of secret ambitious ends, and propertie ate counsels, smothered under the habit of a scie sar, and slubbered over with a certain rude and clownish fashion, that had the semblance of integrity. Wotton. SLUBBERDEGULLION. n. s. [I suppose a cant word without derivation.] A paltry, dirty, sorry wretch. Quoth she, although thou hast deserv'd, Base slubberdegullion, to be serv'd As thou didst vow to deal with me, If thou hadst got the victory. SLUDGE. n. s. [I suppose from rlog slough, Sax.] Mire; dirt mixed with water. Hudibras. The earth I made a mere soft sludge or mud. SLUG. n. s, [slug, Dan. and slock, Dut. signify a glutton, and thence one that has the sloth of a glutton.] 1. An idler; a drone; a slow, heavy, sleepy, lazy wretch. Fie! what a slug is Hastings, that he comes not! An hindrance; an obstruction. Shakesp. Usury dulls and damps all improvements, wherein money would be stirring, if it were not for this slug. Bacon. 3. A kind of slow creeping snail. 4. [rlecg, an hammerhead, Sax.] A cylindrical or oval piece of metal shot from a gun. When fractures are made with bullets or slugs, there the scalp and cranium are driven in together. Wiseman's Surgery. As, forc'd from wind-guns, lead itself can fly, And pond'rous slugs cut swiftly through the sky. Pope. To SLUG. v. n. [from the noun] To lie idle; to play the drone; to move slowly. All he did was to deceive good knights, And draw them from pursuit of praise and fame, To slug in sloth and sensual delights, And end their days with irrenowned shame. Fairy Queen. He lay not all night slugging in a cabin under his mantle, but used commonly to keep others waking to defend their lives. Spenser. One went slugging on with a thousand cares. L'Estrange. SLUGGARD. n. 8. [from slug.] An idler; a drone; an inactive lazy fellow. Cry mercy, lords, and watchful gentlemen, That you have ta'en a tardy sluggard here. Shakesp. Rich. 1I1, This mightier sound shall make Sprightly May commands our youth to keep The vigils of lier night, and breaks their sluggard sleep. Dryden. To SLUGGARDIZE. v. a. [from sluggard.] To make idle; to make dronish. Rather see the wonders of the world abroad, That, living dully sluggardiz'd at home, Wear out thy youth with shapeless idleness. Shak. SLUGGISH. adj. [from slug.] Dull; drowsy; lazy; slothful; idle; insipid; slow; inact ve; inert. Sluggish idleness, the nurse of sin, Upon a slothful ass he chose to ride. Fairy Queen. The dull billows, thick as troubled mire, Whom neither wind out of their seat could force, Nor tides did drive out of their sluggish source. Spenser. One, bolder than the rest, With his broad sword provok'd the sluggish beast. Waller. Matter, being impotent, sluggish, and inactive, hath no power to stir or raove itself. Woodward. SLUGGISHLY. adv. [from sluggish.] Dul-|SLUMBER. n. s. [from the verb.] ertness. The most of mankind are inclined by her thither, if they would take the pains; no less than birds to fly, and horses to run: which if they lose, it is through their own sluggishness, and by that means become her prodigies, not her children. Ben Jonson. It is of great moment to teach the mind to shake off its sluggishness, and vigorously employ itself about what reason shall direct. Locke. SLUICE. n. s. [sluyse, Dur. escluse, Fr. sclusa, Ital.] A watergate; a floodgate; a vent for water. Two other precious drops, that ready stood Each in their crystal sluice, he, ere they fell, Kiss'd, as the gracious signs of sweet remorse, And pious awe, that feard to have offended. Milt. Divine Alpheus, who, by secret sluice, Stole under seas to meet his Arethuse. Milton. If we receive them all, they were more than seven; if only the natural sluices, they were fewer. Brown's Vulg. Err. As waters from her sluices, flow'd Unbounded sorrow from her eyes. Prior. Each sluice of affluent fortune open'd soon, And wealth flow'd in at morning, night, and noon. Harte. To SLUICE. v. a. [from the noun.] To emit by floodgates. you Like a traitor coward, Sluic'd out his inn'cent soul through streams of blood. Shakesp. Veins of liquid ore sluic'd from the lake. Milton. You wrong me, if think I'll sell one drop Within these veins for pageants; but let honour Call for my blood, I'll sluice it into streams; Turn fortune loose again to my pursuit, And let me hunt her through her embattled foes, In dusty plains; there will I be the first. Dryden's Spanish Fryar. SLU'ICY. adj. [from sluice.] Falling in streams as from a sluice or floodgate. And oft whole sheets descend of sluicy rain, Suck'd by the spungy clouds from off the main : The lofty skies at once come pouring down, The promis'd crop and golden labours drown. Dryden. To SLUMBER. v. n. [rlumeɲan, Sax. sluymeren, Dut.] 1. To sleep lightly; to be not awake, nor in profound sleep. 2. He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. Psalms. Conscience wakes despair that slumber'd. Milton. To sleep; to repose. Sleep and slumber are often confounded. God speaketh, yet man perceiveth it not in a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed. Job, xxxiii. 15. Have ye chosen this place, Milton. 3. To be in a state of negligence and supineness. Why slumbers Pope, who leads the tuneful train, Nor hears that virtue which he loves complain? Young. To SLUMBER. v. a. 1. To lay to sleep. 2. To stupify; to stun. Then up he took the slumber'd senseless corse, And, ere he could out of his swoon awake, Him to his castle brought. Fairy Queen. To honest a deed after it was done, or to slumber his conscience in the doing, he studied other incentives. Wotton. 2. And for his dreams, I wonder he's so fond To trust the mock'ry of unquiet slumbers. Shakesp. Richard III. From carelessness it shall fall into slumber, and from a stumber it shall settle into a deep and long sleep; till at last, perhaps, it shall sleep itself into a lethargy, and that such an one, that nothing but hell and judgment shall awaken it. South. Labour and rest, that equal periods keep; Obedient slumbers that can wake and weep. Pope. Sleep; repose. Boy! Lucius! fast asleep? It is no matter; Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber. Shakesp. Julius Cæsar. Ev'n lust and envy sleep, but love denies Rest to my soul, and stumber to my eyes: Three days 1 promis'd to attend my doom, And two long days and nights are yet to come. Dry. SLUMBEROUS. adj. [from slumber.] SLUMBERY. 1. Inviting to sleep; soporiferous; causing sleep. 2. The timely dew of sleep, Now falling with soft slumb'rous weight, inclines Our eyelids. Milton. While pensive in the silent slumb'rous shade, Sleep's gentle pow'rs her drooping eyes invade ; Minerva, life-like, on embodied air Impress'd the form of Iphthema. Pope's Odyssey. There every eye with stumb'rous chains she bound, And dash'd the flowing goblets to the ground. Pope. Sleepy; not waking. A great perturbation in nature! to receive at once the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of watching. In this slumbery agitation, what have Shak. Macbeth you heard her say? SLUNG. The preterite and participle passive of sling. SLUNK. The preterite and participle passive of slink. Silence accompany'd; for beast, and bird, They to their grassy couch, these to their nests, Were slunk. Milton's Par. Lost To SLUR. v. a. [slovrig, Dutch, nasty sloore a slut.] 1. To sully; to soil; to contaminate. 2. To pass lightly; to balk; to miss. The atheists laugh in their sleeves, and not a little triumph, to see the cause of theism thus betrayed by its professed friends, and the grand argument slurred by them, and so their work done to their hands. Cudworth. Studious to please the genius of the times, With periods, points, and tropes, he slurs his crimes, He robb'd not, but he borrow'd from the poor, And took but with intention to restore. Dryden. 3. To cheat; to trick. What was the publick faith found out for? But to slur men of what they fought for? Hudib. Come, seven's the main, Prior. Cries Ganymede: the usual trick: Seven, slur a six; eleven, a nick. SLUR. n. s. [from the verb.] Faint reproach; slight disgrace. Here is an ape made a king for shewing tricks ; and the fox is then to put a slur upon him, in ev posing him for sport to the scorn of the people. L'Estrange No one can rely upon such an one, either with safety to his affairs, or without a slur to his reputation; since he that trusts a knave has no other recompence but to be accounted a fool for his pains. South's Sermons. SLUT. n. s. [slodde, Dut.] 1. A dirty woman. Cricket, to Windsor chimnies shalt thou leap; Where fires thou find'st unrak'd, and hearths unswept, |