Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
SLOTHFUL — SMIGHT
SLOTHFUL, a. Inactive; sluggish; lazy; indolent; idle. He that is slothful in his work, is brother to him that is a great waster. Proverbs 18:9.
SLOTHFULLY, adv. Lazily; sluggish; idly.
SLOTHFULNESS, n. The indulgence of sloth; inactivity; the habit of idleness; laziness. Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep. Proverbs 19:15.
SLOTTERY, a.
1. Squalid; dirty; sluttish untrimmed. [Not in use.]
2. Foul; wet. [Not in use.]
SLOUCH, n. [This word probably belongs to the root of lag, slug.]
1. A hanging down; a depression of the head or of some other part of the body, an ungainly clownish gait.
2. An awkward, heavy, clownish fellow.
SLOUCH, v.i. To hang down; to have a down cast clownish look, gait or manner.
SLOUCH, v.t. To depress; to cause to hang down; as, to slouch the hat.
SLOUCHING, ppr.
1. Causing to hang down.
2. a. Hanging down; walking heavily and awkwardly.
SLOUGH, n. slou.
1. A place of deep mud or mire; a hole full of mire.
2. [pron. sluff.] The skin or cast skin of a serpent. [Its use for the skin in general, in Shakespeare, is not authorized.]
3. [pron. sluff.] The part that separates from a foul sore. The dead part which separates from the living in mortification.
SLOUGH, v.i. sluff. To separate from the sound flesh; to come off; as the matter over a sore; a term in surgery.
To slough off, to separate from the living parts, as the dead part in mortification.
SLOUGHLY, a. slou’y. Full of sloughs; miry.
SLOVEN, n. A man careless of his dress, or negligent of cleanliness; a man habitually negligent of neatness and order.
SLOVENLINESS, n. [from sloven.]
1. Negligence of dress; habitual want of cleanliness.
2. Neglect of order and neatness.
SLOVENLY, a.
1. Negligent of dress or neatness; as a slowenly man.
2. Loose; disorderly; not neat; as a slovenly dress.
SLOVENLY, adv. In a careless, inelegant manner.
SLOVENRY, n. Negligence of order or neatness; dirtiness. [Not in use.]
SLOW, a.
1. Moving a small distance in a long time; not swift; not quick in motion; not rapid; as a slow stream; a slow motion.
2. Late; not happening in short time. These changes in the heavens though slow, produc’d like change on sea and land, sidereal blast.
3. Not ready; not prompt or quick; as slow of speech, and slow of tongue. Exodus 4:10.
4. Dull; in active; tardy. The Trojans are not slow to guard their shore from an expected foe.
5. Not hasty; not precipitate; acting with deliberation. The Lord is merciful, slow to anger. He that is slow the wrath is of great understanding. Proverbs 14:29.
6. Dull; heavy in wit.
7. Behind in time; indicating a time later than the true time; as, the clock or watch is slow.
8. Not advancing, growing or improving rapidly; as the slow growth of arts and sciences.
SLOW, is used in composition to modify other words; as a slow-paced horse.
SLOW, as a verb, to delay, is not in use.
SLOW, n. A moth. [Not in use.]
SLOWBACK, n. A lubber; an idle fellow; a loiterer.
SLOWLY, adv.
1. With moderate motion; not rapidly; not with velocity or celerity; as, to walk slowly.
2. Not soon; not early; not in a little time; not with hasty advance; as a country that rises slowly into importance.
3. Not hastily; not rashly; not with precipitation; as, he determines slowly.
4. Not promptly; not readily; as, he learns slowly.
5. Tardily; with slow progress. The building proceeds slowly.
SLOWNESS, n.
1. Moderate motion; want of speed or velocity. Swifness and slowness are relative ideas.
2. Tardy advance; moderate progression; as the slowness of an operation; slowness of growth or improvement.
3. Dullness to admit conviction or affection; as slowness of heart.
4. Want of readiness or promptness; dullness of intellect.
5. Deliberation; coolness; caution in deciding.
6. Dilatoriness; tardiness.
SLOW-WORM, SLOE-WORM, n. An insect found on the leaves of the sloe-tree, which often changes its skin and assumes different colors. It changes into a four winged fly.
SLOW-WORM, n. A kind of viper, the blind worm, scarcely venomous.
SLUBBER, v.t. To do lazily, imperfectly or coarsely; to daub; to stain; to cover carelessly. [Little used and vulgar.]
SLUBBERINGLY, adv. In a sloenly manner, [Not used and vulgar.]
SLUDGE, n. Mud; mire; soft mud.
SLUDS, n. Among miners, half roasted ore.
SLUE, v.t. In seamen’s language, to turn any thing conical or cylindrical, etc. about its axis without removing it; to turn.
SLUG, n. [allied to slack, sluggard.]
1. A drone; a slow, heavy, lazy fellow.
2. A hinderance; obstruction.
3. A kind of snail, very destructive to plants, of the genus Limax. It is without a shell.
4. A cylindrical or oval piece of metal, used for the charge of a gun.
SLUG, v.i. To move slowly; to lie idle.
SLUG, v.t. To make sluggish.
SLUGABED, n. One who indulges in lying abed. [Not in use.]
SLUGGARD, n. [from slug and ard, slow kind.] A person habitually lazy, idle and inactive; a drone.
SLUGGARD, a. Sluggish; lazy.
SLUGGARDIZE, v.t. To make lazy. [Little used.]
SLUGGISH, 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.
SLUGGISHLY, adv. Lazily; slothfully; drowsily; idly; slowly.
SLUGGISHNESS, 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 steam.
SLUGGY, a. Sluggish [Not in use.]
SLUICE, SLUSE, n. [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.
SLUICE, SLUSE, v.t. To emit by flood-gates. [Little used]
SLUICY, SLUSY, a. Falling in streams as from a sluice. And oft whole sheets descent of sluicy rain.
SLUMBER, v.i.
1. To sleep lightly; to doze. He that keepth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. Psalm 121:4.
2. To sleep. Slumber is used as synonymous with sleep, particularly in the poetic and eloquent style.
3. To be in a state of negligence, sloth, supineness or inactivity. Why slumbers Pope?
SLUMBER, v.t.
1. To lay to sleep.
2. To stun; to stupefy. [Little used and hardly legitimate.]
SLUMBER, 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.
2. Sleep; repose. Rest to my soul, and slumber to my eyes.
SLUMBERER, n. One that slumbers.
SLUMBERING, ppr. Dozing; sleeping.
SLUMBEROUS, SLUMBERY, a.
1. Inviting or causing sleep; soporiferous. While pensive in the slumberous shade
2. Sleep; not waking.
SLUMP, v.i. To fall or sink suddenly into water or mud, when walking on a hard surface, as on ice or frozed 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 approriate that no onther word wil supply its place.]
SLUNG, pret. and pp. of sling.
SLUNK, pret. and pp. of slink.
SLUR, v.t.
1. To soil; to sully; to contaminate; to disgrace.
2. To pass lightly; to conceal. With periods, points and tropes he slurs his crimes.
3. To cheat; to trick. [Unusual.]
4. In music, to sing or perform in a smooth gliding style.
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 noest that are to be sung to the same syllable, or made in one continued breath of a wind instrument, or with one stoke of a stringed instrument.
SLUSE, a more correct orthography of sluice.
SLUSH, n. Soft mud, or a soft mixture of filthy substances. [This may be the Eng. slutch.]
SLUT, n.
1. A woman who is negligent of cleanliness, and who suffers her person, clothes, funiture, etc., to be dirty or in disorder.
2. A name of slight contempt for a woman.
SLUTTERY, n. The qualities of a slut; more generally, the practice of a slut; neglect of cleanliness and order; dirtiness of clothes, rooms, furniture or provisions.
SLUTTISH, a.
1. Not neat or cleanly; dirty; careless of dress and neatness; disorderly; as a sluttish woman.
2. Disorderly; dirty; as a sluttish dress.
3. Meretricious. [Little used.]
SLUTTISHLY, adv. In a sluttish manner; negligently; dirtily,
SLUTTISHNESS, n. The qualities or practice of a slut; negligence of dress; dirtiness of dress, furniture and in domestic affairs generally.
SLY, a.
1. Artfully dextrous in performing things secretly, and escaping observation or detection; usually implying some degree of meanness; artfully cunning; applied to persons; as a sly man or boy.
2. Done with artful and dextrous secrecy; as a sly trick.
3. Marked with artful secrecy; as sly circumspection.
4. Secret; concealed. Envy works in a sly imperceptible manner.
SLY-BOOTS, n. A sly, cunning or waggish person.
SLYLY, SLYNESS. [See Slily, Sliness.]
SMACK, v.i. [The primary sense is to throw, to strike, whence to touch or taste;]
1. To kiss with a close compression of the lips, so as to make a sound when they separate; to kiss with violence.
2. To make a noise by the separation of the lips after tasting any thing.
3. To have a taste; to be tinctured with any particular taste.
4. To have a tincture or quality infused. All sects, all ages smack of this vice.
SMACK, v.t.
1. To kiss with a sharp noise.
2. To make a sharp noies with the lips.
3. To make a sharp noise by striking; to crack; as, to smack a whip.
SMACK, n.
1. A loud kiss
2. A quick sharp noise, as of the lips or of a whip.
3. Taste; savor; tinture.
4. Pleasing taste.
5. A quick smart blow.
6. A small quantity; a taste.
7. A small vessel, commonly rigged as a cutter, used in the coasting and fishing trade.
SMALL, a.
1. Slender; thin; fine; of little diameter; hence in general, little in size or quantity; not great; as a small house; a small horse; a small farm; a small body; small particles.
2. Minute; slender; fine; as a small voice.
3. Little in degree; as small improvement; small acquirements; the trouble is small. There arose no small stir about that way. Acts 19:23.
4. Being of little moment, weight or importance; as, it is a small matter or thing; a small subject.
5. Of little genius or ability; petty; as a small poet or musician.
6. Short; containing little; as a small essay.
7. Little in amount; as a small sum; a small price.
8. Containing little of the principal quality, or little strenghth; weak; as small beer.
9. Gentle; soft; not loud. 1 Kings 19:12.
10. Mean; base; unworthy.
SMALL, n. The small or slender part of a thing; as the small of the leg or of the back.
SMALL, v.t. To make little or less. [Not in use.]
SMALLAGE, n. A plant of the genus Apium, water parsley.
SMALL-BEER, n. [small and beer.] A species of weak beer.
SMALL-COAL, n. [small and coal.] Little wood coals unsed to light fires.
SMALL-CRAFT, n. [small and craft.] A vessel, or vessels in general, of a small size, or below the size of ships and bigs intended for foreign trade.
SMALLISH, a. Somewhat small.
SMALLNESS, n. Littleness of size or extent; littleness of quantity; as the smallness of a fly or of a horse; the smallness of a hill.
2. Littleness in degree; as the smallness of trouble or pain.
3. Littleness in force or strength; weakness; as smallness of mind or intellectual powers.
4. Fineness; softness; melodiousness; as the smallness of a female voice.
5. Littleness in amount of value; as the smallness of a sum.
6. Littleness of importance; inconsideratbleness; as the smallness of an affair.
SMALL-POX, n. [small and pox, pocks.] A very contagious disease, characterized by an eruprion of pustules on the skin; the variolous disease.
SMALLY, adv. small’-ly. In a little quantity or degree; with minuteness. [Little used.]
SMALT, n. A beautiful blue glass of cobalt; flint and potash fused together.
SMARAGD, n. The emerald.
SMARAGDINE, a. [L. Smaragdinus.] Pertaining to emerald; consisting of emerald, or resembling it; of an emerald green.
SMARAGDITE, n. A mineral; called also green diallage.
SMARIS, n. A fish of a dark green color.
SMART, n. [This word is probably formed on the root of L. amarus, bitter, that is, sharp.]
1. Quick, pungent, lively pain; a pricking local pain, as the pain from puncture by nettles; as the smart of bodily punishment.
2. Severe pungent pain of mind; pungent grief; as the smart of affliction.
SMART, v.i.
1. To feel a lively pungent pain, particularly a pungent local pain from some piercing or irritating application. Thus Cayeene pepper applied to the tongue makes it smart.
2. To feel a pungent pain of mind; to feel sharp pain; as, to smart under sufferings.
3. To be punished; to bear penalties or the evil consequences of any thing. He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it. Proverbs 11:15.
SMART, a.
1. Pungent; pricking; causing a keen local pain; as a smart lash or stroke; a smart quality or taste.
2. Keen; severe; poignant; as smart pain or sufferings.
3. Quick; vigorous; sharp; severe; as a smart skirmish.
4. Brisk; fresh; as a smart breeze.
5. Acute and pertinent; witty; as a smart reply; a smart saying.
6. Brisk; vivacious; as a smart rhetorician. Who, for the poor renown of being smart, would leave a sting within a brother’s heart?
SMART, n. A cant word for a fellow that affects briskness and vivacity.
SMARTEN, v.t. To make smart. [Not in use.]
SMARTLE, v.i. To waste away. [Not in use.]
SMARTLY, adv.
1. With keen pain; as, to ake smartly.
2. Briskly; sharply; wittily.
3. Vigorously; actively.
SMARTNESS, n.
1. The quality of being smart or pungent; poignancy; as the smartness of pain.
2. Quickness; vigor; as the smartness of a blow.
3. Liveliness; briskness; vivacity; wittiness; as the smartness of a reply or of a phrase.
SMART-WEED, n. A name given to the arsmart or persicaria.
SMASH, v.t. [probably mash, with a prefix.] To break in pieces by violence; to dash to pieces; to crush. Here every thing is broken and smashed to pieces. [Vulgar.]
SMATCH, n. [corrupted from smack.]
1. Taste; tincture. [Not in use or vulgar.]
2. A bird.
SMATTER, v.i. [It contains the elements of mutter.]
1. To talk superficially or ignorantly. Of state affairs you cannot smatter.
2. To have a slight taste, or a slight superficial knowledge.
SMATTER, n. Slight superficial knowledge.
SMATTERER, n. One who has only a slight superficial knowledge.
SMATTERING, n. A slight superficial knowledge. [This is the word commonly used.]
SMEAR, v.t.
1. To overspread with any thing unctuous, viscous or adhesive; to besmear; to daub; as, to smear any thing with oil, butter, pitch, etc.
2. To soil; to contaminate; to pollute; as smeared with infamy.
SMEAR, n. A fat oily substance; ointment. [Little used.]
SMEARED, pp. Overspread with soft or oily matter; soiled.
SMEARING, ppr. Overspreading with any thing soft and oleaginous; soiling.
SMEARY, a. That smears or soils; adhesive. [Little used.]
SMEATH, n. A sea fowl.
SMECTITE, n. An argillaceous earth; so called from its property of taking grease out of cloth, etc.
SMEETH, v.t. To smole. [Not in use.]
SMEGMATIC, a. Being of the nature of soap; soapy; cleansing; detersive.
SMELL, v.t. pret. and pp. smelled, smelt. [I have not found this word in any other language.] TO perceive by the nose, or by the olfactory nerves; to have a sensation excited in certain organs of the nose by particular qualities of a body, which are transmitted in fine particles, often form a distance; as, to smell a rose; to smell perfumes.
To smell out, is a low phrase signifying to find out by sagacity.
To smell a rat, is a low phrase signifying to suspect strongly.
SMELL, v.i.
1. To affect the olfactory nerves; to have an odor or particualr scent; followed by of; as to smell of smoke; to smell of musk.
2. To have a particular tincuture or smack or any quality; as, a report smells of calumny. [Not elegant.]
3. To practice smelling. Exodus 30:38.
4. To exercise sagacity.
SMELL, n.
1. The sense of faculty by which through the instrumentally of the olfactory nerves; or the faculty of perceiving by the organs of the nose; one of the five senses. In some species of beasts, the smell is remark able acute, particularly in the canine species.
2. Scent; odor; the quality of bodies which affects the olfactory organs; as the smell of mint; the smell of geranium. The sweetest smell in the air is that of the white double violet.