different between sloth vs edentate

English

Alternative forms

• sloath, slowth (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English slouthe, slewthe (“laziness”), from Old English sl?wþ (“sloth, indolence, laziness, inertness, torpor”), from Proto-Germanic *slaiwiþ? (“slowness, lateness”), equivalent to slow +? -th. Cognate with Scots sleuth (“sloth, slowness”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sl???/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /sl??/
• (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA^(key): /sl??/
• (General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /sl??/
• Rhymes: -???, -??

Noun

sloth (countable and uncountable, plural sloths)

1. (uncountable) Laziness; slowness in the mindset; disinclination to action or labour.
   • 1758, Benjamin Franklin, Preliminary Address to the Pennsylvania Almanac

     Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labour wears.

2. (countable) A herbivorous, arboreal South American mammal of the families Megalonychidae and Bradypodidae, noted for its slowness and inactivity.
3. (rare) A collective term for a group of bears.

Usage notes

Sloth is one of the seven deadly sins.

Synonyms

• (animal): tardigrade

Hyponyms

• (animal): two-toed sloth, three-toed sloth

Derived terms

Related terms

• slowth

Translations

Verb

sloth (third-person singular simple present sloths, present participle slothing, simple past and past participle slothed)

1. (obsolete, intransitive, transitive) To be idle; to idle (away time).

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Gower to this entry?)

   • 1676, John Bunyan, The Strait Gate, or, Great Difficulty of Going to Heaven, London: Francis Smith, p. 69,^[1]

     […] the most of professors are for imbezzeling, mispending and slothing away their time, their talents, their opportunities to do good in […]

   • 1677, Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid, London: T. Passinger, p. 2,^[2]

     That you endeavour carefully to please your Lady, Master or Mistress, be faithful, diligent and submissive to them, encline not to sloth or laze in bed, but rise early in a morning.

Further reading

• sloth in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• sloth in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Loths, holts, loths

English

Etymology

Borrowed from New Latin edentatus.

Adjective

edentate (not comparable)

1. Lacking teeth.

   an edentate quadruped; an edentate leaf

2. (zoology) Belonging to the Edentata.

Translations

Noun

edentate (plural edentates)

1. Any mammal that has few or no teeth, but especially the anteaters, armadillos, and sloths of the former order Edentata.

Translations

Anagrams

• attendee