sluggishly

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adverb

In a sluggish manner; responding or moving slowly.

UncommonScrabble 18

Meanings

adverbsluggishly (comparative more sluggishly, superlative most sluggishly)

comparative more sluggishly · superlative most sluggishly

  1. In a sluggish manner; responding or moving slowly.

    She was not bound in any other way and she lay quiet, her body moving sluggishly with the swaying of the car.

    1953, Ian Fleming, “Black Hare and Grey Hound”, in Casino Royale, London: Pan Books, published 1955, page 107
    3 more examples

    It hung together in banks, flowing sluggishly down the slope of the land and driving reluctantly before the wind[.]

    1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 145

    As a result, the aggregate nominal wage responds sluggishly to shocks, generating inefficient variations in the average wage markup.

    2015, Jordi Galí, Monetary Policy, Inflation, and the Business Cycle, 2nd edition, Princeton University Press, page 164

    "Their survival to this day tells us Mars' mantle has evolved sluggishly over billions of years," Charalambous said. "On Earth, features like these may well have been largely erased."

    2025 September 3, Julia Jacobo, “What are the mysterious blobs on Mars? Astronomers may have figured it out”, in ABC News

Synonyms & antonyms

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

sluggishly. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sluggishly

MLA

“sluggishly.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sluggishly. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sluggishly,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sluggishly.

Source: sluggishly on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.