ponderous

comparative more ponderous · superlative most ponderous

1. Heavy, massive, weighty.

   [H]e saw, at the end of a shallow embrasure, a ponderous door of dark wood, braced with iron.

   1879, Julian Hawthorne, chapter 5, in Archibald Malmaison

   2 more examples

   The great elephant, when the cage was being placed, would, at a signal from its keeper, place its ponderous head against one side of the cage and push.

   c. 1920, Edgar B. P. Darlington, chapter 4, in The Circus Boys on the Flying Rings

   Set against the background of the American civil war, with Keaton a cunning but unskilled driver, unaided, of the ponderous giant of a locomotive, it remains not only probably the funniest film about railways ever made, but one of the funniest silent films to retain its comic power over today's more sophisticated audiences.

   1958 February 28, David Gunston, “Railways on the Screen”, in Railway Magazine, page 88

   Synonyms: heavy, massive

2. broadlyfigurativelySerious, onerous, oppressive.

   In its court-yard—worthy of the Castle of Otranto in its ponderous gloom—is a massive staircase.

   1845, Charles Dickens, chapter 11, in Pictures From Italy

   2 more examples

   It was Dryden's opinion . . . that the drama required an alternation of comick and tragick scenes; and that it is necessary to mitigate, by alleviations of merriment, the pressure of ponderous events, and the fatigue of toilsome passions.

   1781, Samuel Johnson, “Dryden”, in Lives of the Poets

   For the time, her own body was the source of all the life in the world, which tried to burst forth here—there—and was repressed now by Mr. Bax, now by Evelyn, now by the imposition of ponderous stupidity.

   1915, Virginia Woolf, chapter 19, in The Voyage Out

   Synonyms: oppressive, serious

3. Clumsy, unwieldy, or slow, especially due to weight.

   Following his steps . . . came two elderly women of the lower middle class, one stout and ponderous, the other rosy cheeked and nimble.

   1919, Virginia Woolf, Kew Gardens

   2 more examples

   [T]he inmates of the coach, by numerous hard, painful joltings, and ponderous, dragging trundlings, are suddenly made sensible of some great change in the character of the road.

   1852 July, Herman Melville, “Book XVI. First Night of Their Arrival in the City.”, in Pierre: Or, The Ambiguities, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, section I, pages 312–313

   Slowly, through an increasing glow that lighted land and water alike, the leviathan of the deep made her ponderous progress to the hill-encircled harbor.

   1915, Samuel Hopkins Adams, chapter 10, in Little Miss Grouch

4. Dull, boring, tedious; long-winded in expression.

   Over supper the minister did unbend a little into one or two ponderous jokes.

   1863, Elizabeth Gaskell, Cousin Phillis

   1 more example

   [A]s certainly as any one said anything in her presence that she had occasion to repeat, she changed the wording to six-syllabled mouthfuls, delivered with ponderous circumlocution.

   1918, Gene Stratton-Porter, chapter 2, in A Daughter Of The Land

5. rareCharacterized by or associated with pondering.

   The acute and ponderous mind of Dr. Johnson was not always right in its decisions.

   1804, The Literary Magazine and American Register, volume 2, number 7, page 10

   2 more examples

   Ponderous thoughts take hold of the heart; musing maketh the fire to burn, and steady sight hath the greatest influence upon us.

   c. 1660, Thomas Manton, “Sermon Upon John III”, in Works of Thomas Manton, 2002 edition, →ISBN, page 464

   They are the pleasantest of all companions, and perhaps the most affluent in correct opinions of men and things generally, although little addicted to ponderous consideration or deep research.

   1850, Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, volume 41, page 242

6. obsoleteDense.