Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SLUG'A-BED, n.

One who indulges in lying abed. [Not used.] – Shak.

SLUG'GARD, a.

Sluggish; lazy. – Dryden

SLUG'GARD, n. [from slug and ard, slow kind.]

A person habitually lazy, idle and inactive; a drone. – Dryden.

SLUG'GARD-IZE, v.t.

To make lazy. [Little used.] – Shak.

SLUG'GISH, a.

1. Habitually idle and lazy; slothful; dull; inactive; as, a sluggish man.
2. Slow; having little motion; as, a sluggish river or stream.
3. Inert; inactive; having no power to move itself. Matter is sluggish and inactive. – Woodward.

SLUG'GISH-LY, adv.

Lazily; slothfully; drowsily; idly; slowly. – Milton.

SLUG'GISH-NESS, n.

1. Natural or habitual indolence or laziness; sloth; dullness; applied to persons.
2. Inertness; want of power to move; applied to inanimate matter.
3. Slowness; as, the sluggishness of a stream.

SLUG'GY, a.

Sluggish. [Not in use.] – Chaucer.

SLUGS, n.

Among miners, half-roasted ore.

SLUICE, or SLUSE, a.

Falling in streams, as from a sluice. And oft whole sheets descend of sluicy rain. – Dryden.

SLUICE, or SLUSE, n. [D. sluis, a sluice, a lock; G. schleuse, a floodgate, and schloss, a lock, from schliessen, to shut; Sw. sluss; Dan. sluse; Fr. ecluse; It. chiusa, an inclosure. The Dutch sluiten, Dan. slutter, to shut, are the G. schliessen; all formed on the elements of Ld, Ls, the root of Eng. lid, L. claudo, clausi, clausus; Low L. exclusa. The most correct orthography is Sluse.]

1. The stream of water issuing through a flood-gate; or the gate itself. If the word had its origin in shutting, it denoted the frame of boards or planks which closes the opening of a mill dam; but I believe it is applied to the stream, the gate and channel. It is a common saying, that a rapid stream runs like a sluse.
2. An opening; a source of supply; that through which any thing flows. Each sluice of affluent fortune open'd soon. – Harte.

SLUICE, or SLUSE, v.t.

To emit by flood gates. [Little used.] – Milton.

SLU'ING, ppr.

Turning on its axis.

SLUM'BER, n.

1. Light sleep; sleep not deep or sound. From carelessness it shall settle into slumber, and from slumber it shall settle into a deep and long sleep. – South.
2. Sleep; repose. Rest to my soul, and slumber to my eyes. – Dryden.

SLUM'BER, v.i. [Sax. slumerian; D. sluimeren; G. schlummern; Dan. slummer, slumrer; Sw. slumra.]

1. To sleep lightly; to doze. He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. – Ps cxxi.
2. To sleep. Slumber is used as synonymous with sleep, particularly in the poetic and eloquent style. – Milton.
3. To be in a state of negligence, sloth, supineness or inactivity. Why slumbers Pope? – Young.

SLUM'BER, v.t.

1. To lay to sleep.
2. To stun; to stupefy. [Little used and hardly legitimate.] – Spenser. Wotton.

SLUM'BER-ED, pp.

Laid to sleep.

SLUM'BER-ER, n.

One that slumbers.

SLUM'BER-ING, ppr.

Dozing; sleeping.

SLUM'BER-ING-LY, adv.

In a slumbering manner.

SLUM'BER-OUS, or SLUM'BER-Y, a.

1. Inviting or causing sleep; soporiferous. While pensive in the slumberous shade. – Pope.
2. Sleepy; not waking. – Shak.

SLUMP, v.i. [G. schlump, Dan. and Sw. slump, a hap or chance, accident, that is, a fall.]

To fall or sink suddenly into water or mud, when walking on a hard surface, as on ice or frozen ground, not strong enough to bear the person. [This legitimate word is in common and respectable use in New England, and its signification is so appropriate that no other word will supply its place.]

SLUNG, v. [pret. and pp. of Sling.]

SLUNK, v. [pret. and pp. of Slink.]

SLUR, n.

1. Properly, a black mark; hence, slight reproach or disgrace. Every violation of moral duty should be a slur to the reputation.
2. In music, a mark connecting notes that are to be sung to the same syllable, or made in one continued breath of a wind instrument, or with one stroke of a stringed instrument.