slow study

plural slow studies

1. USidiomaticOne who takes a long time to learn or understand things; a slow learner.

   I was always a slow study, imp, but I made my own decisions.

   1982, Kasey Michaels, The Belligerent Miss Boynton

   3 more examples

   I used to write as slow as judgment; now I write rather fast; but I am still 'a slow study,' and sit along while silent on my eggs. Unconscious thought, there is the only method: macerate your subject, let it boil slow, then take the lid off and look in —and there your stuff is, good or bad.

   1891 November, Robert Louis Stevenson, Letter to W. Craibe Angus

   He does it so badly, and he is such a slow study, that I'm afraid the first act will break down if I don't give it some vim; after you are once on, the thing will go and I shan't care a red.

   1897 August, Charles Egbert Craddock, “The Juggler”, in The Atlantic Monthly, volume 80, number 478, page 254

   Although I'm a very slow study, Annie Dillard's simple observation is beginning to seep in.

   2017, Vance G. Morgan, Freelance Christianity: Philosophy, Faith, and the Real World, page 68

   Antonyms: quick study

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see slow, study.