sloth

/slɑθ/

/sləʊθ/

Other forms: sloths

If you lounge around in your bathrobe watching TV and ordering out for pizza, you'll get called a sloth. A sloth is actually a slow-moving, tree-dwelling mammal, but it has become a synonym for "lazybones."

Slug also doubles as the name of an animal and a term for someone who is lazy, slow or lethargic. But with slug, the animal name probably morphed into the human application, whereas sloth has meant "lazy person" or "laziness" for a long time. In the Catholic Church sloth was categorized as one of the seven deadly sins.

Definitions of sloth

1. noun

   a disinclination to work or exert yourself
   synonyms: slothfulness

   type of:

   disinclination, hesitancy, hesitation, indisposition, reluctance

   a certain degree of unwillingness
2. noun

   apathy and inactivity in the practice of virtue (personified as one of the deadly sins)
   synonyms: acedia, laziness

   type of:

   deadly sin, mortal sin

   an unpardonable sin entailing a total loss of grace
3. noun

   any of several slow-moving arboreal mammals of South America and Central America; they hang from branches back downward and feed on leaves and fruits
   synonyms: tree sloth

   types:

   Bradypus tridactylus, ai, three-toed sloth

   a sloth that has three long claws on each forefoot and each hindfoot

   Choloepus didactylus, two-toed sloth, unai, unau

   relatively small fast-moving sloth with two long claws on each front foot

   Choloepus hoffmanni, two-toed sloth, unai, unau

   a sloth of Central America that has two long claws on each forefoot and three long claws on each hindfoot

   type of:

   edentate

   primitive terrestrial mammal with few if any teeth; of tropical Central America and South America