Definition of slow in English:

slow

adjective sləʊsloʊ

1Moving or operating, or designed to do so, only at a low speed; not quick or fast.
until recently diesel cars were slow and noisy
a slow dot-matrix printer
Example sentencesExamples
- Well, because of its speed, which was slow, and its size, which was huge, Frances was and is a colossal rain maker.
- A lorry driver, stopped because of his slow speed, was found to be more than two-and-a-half times the legal alcohol limit, a court heard.
- To sum up, to show action and movement, select a slow shutter speed and stand side on to the action.
- Motorbikes in the summer are the worst for speed and caravans create long lines of very slow moving traffic.
- So it seems to me that the alert system was a little slow in operating.
- It made short quick movements then proceeded at a 90 degrees from the original movement at a slow speed.
- The term passing lanes implies that the road is divided into slow and fast moving traffic lanes.
- That United weren't streets ahead by half-time was down to their slow, slow, quick, quick, slow approach in the opening period.
- It was especially difficult because of the slow speed at which the criminal justice system operated.
- The speeds are quite slow, but fast enough for a little surfing and emails that aren't way too big.
- No more waiting for slow websites with internet speeds up to 10 times faster than a normal 56k service.
- He tends to swell held notes in both slow and fast movements, perhaps a nod to authentic performance.
- My speed was so slow that bicycles were actually overtaking me.
- And if the heart rate gets too slow, it will speed it up like a pacemaker.
- On the slow speed circuits it's proved that it's fast at Imola and I think here it's proved that it's quick and reliable on a high-speed circuit.
- The days are just moving so fast and slow at the same time, it's difficult to keep track.
- The alternatives are various forms of death - quick, slow, agonising, or imperceptible.
- Movements are large and appear relatively slow in the techniques designed for armored combat.
- In our tests, this printer was slow, noisy and yielded the least impressive results, even with the subtle photo cartridge in place.
- The end repeats the design so far - slow followed by fast - in more concentrated form.
Synonyms
unhurried, leisurely, measured, moderate, deliberate, steady, sedate, slow-moving, slow-going, easy, relaxed, unrushed, gentle, undemanding, comfortable
ponderous, plodding, laboured, dawdling, loitering, lagging, laggard, sluggish, sluggardly, snail-like, tortoise-like, leaden-footed, leaden, creeping
North American informal lollygagging
1. 1.1 Taking a long time to perform a specified action.
  she was rather a slow reader
  with infinitive large organizations can be slow to change
  Example sentencesExamples
  The hard disk is nearly full, the desktop has about 100 items on it, performance is achingly slow.
  The autonomic function tests were performed as in the slow breathing group and the values were recorded before and after the study.
  I'll also just mention that I am a very slow reader.
  The story of the Prudential has stopped being one of irritating slow performance and become something much more important.
  The parallel port interface of our media card reader was too slow.
  While performing it appears slow and gentle but every bit as accomplished as it higher powered and more modern cousins.
  The dancers form a circle or a long line, holding their clasped hands high in the air to perform this slow, graceful dance.
  On the initial attempts, it is helpful for the swimmer to perform long, slow strokes and a long side kick while getting a breath.
  David gave a first class performance in slow airs, jigs and hornpipes.
  This was important for his original readers in a country slow to catch musical tastes from elsewhere.
  Only minutes before office workers performed boozy slow dances around this suburban pub to chart hits.
  For full effect and for safety, flyes must be performed in a slow and controlled manner.
  The long, slow repetition of simple, but heavily detuned chords mimics, in a way, the chanting of monks.
  Performance is somewhat slow, but this is not unusual for filters doing complex calculations.
  Saying this, James loosed a volley from all of his guns while performing a slow barrel roll.
  The national press has become a shadow of its former self, a heavy beast too heavy to move, too slow to maintain the reader's attention.
  However, it doesn't seem to be slow as a CD-ROM reader, so most users might not notice.
  Users can continue to use the web-based file upload utility gratis, but this can be slow, reader Helen Cain points out.
  Still, transactions were delayed, data was missing and system performance was slow.
  This eliminates the multiple acknowledgments that create congestion and slow performance.
2. 1.2 Lasting or taking a long time.
  a slow process
  the journey home was slow
  Example sentencesExamples
  It is a very slow process, promising a little progress at a time.
  I don't remember it happening all at once - it must have been a slow process, like ice breaking away from a glacier.
  Doctors kept them in an artificial coma as their bodies began the slow process of repairing the damage caused while they were both clinically dead.
  ‘Everything is progressing well but it is a slow process,’ he explained.
  It's a slow process but it's time well spent to educate others and provide tools on how to live gently and harmoniously on our planet.
  As you can imagine, it was a lot of waiting and a lot of anxious moments, but it was a very slow and deliberate process.
  For Mukherjee, the journey to becoming an American was a slow process.
  Snail mating is a slow, languorous process, but it also involves some heavy weaponry.
  To create a show of this nature is a slow and steady process of workshopping and experiment.
  Much of the main building was covered by one of the collapsed walls, making a comprehensive search of the site a painstakingly slow process.
  The grieving process is typically slow, gradually winding along until it eventually lessens.
  But the push by environmentalists to ban the trade is a slow process.
  Currently, the process is slow, expensive and done manually.
  It's a slow process, rivaled only by the time it takes to evict someone from their apartment in New York.
  Most of our boxes are unpacked now but there's chaos everywhere and it's a slow process of getting everything sorted out.
  The evolution of humankind is a slow and tortuous process.
  Well I don't know what sort of speedy trial law they have in Texas, but the legal process is inevitably slow.
  Yet the slow process of reconstruction, following the ravages of a diamond-fuelled civil war, continues.
  So I fired up the computer, pulled the blind against the fading sky, and settled down to a slow, steady effort.
  Detainees live absent any points of reference, the whole process is very slow, and that detainees have the feeling that they are living in limbo.
  A number of experimenters and sanitation facilities have been extracting gas from sewage for years now, but it's diluted so much that the process is slow.
  Technically South and North Korea are still at war, but Kim Dae Jung's achievement has been a slow process of reconciliation.
  But Mr Jeffs called the sifting through of so much information ‘a long, slow process’.
  Though it was reported that attracting foreign investment has accelerated since 1997, the process is still slow.
  The process of deterioration is slow, but steady - the kind of food that is consumed being the culprit.
  Changing behavior, as we are well aware, is a very slow process.
  He has called for the council and police to work together and make travellers move on immediately from council land, as the current legal process is too slow.
  Scientists hope patients will adapt, though the learning process might be slow, like a child beginning to recognise shapes and colours.
  But this is a slow process and it could be a matter of months before we have any results.
  Goux apologised to the 180 candidate jurors for the slow selection process.
  Actually, there is, but it's a slow, long process, which needs a great deal of will and a huge amount of effort from pivotal people in both groups.
  Well, there's a very slow and cautious process of reform in Damascus.
  This has been a slow process is was initiated several years ago and has raised doubts about the commerciality of the project.
  It takes a long, slow process to build a brand name.
  Elizabeth has nothing but praise for the service, but she pointed out that it was a slow and steady process, as she had to learn to cope with her fear.
  Synonyms
  long-drawn-out, time-consuming, lengthy, long-lasting, protracted, prolonged, interminable
  gradual, progressive
3. 1.3 Not allowing or intended for fast travel.
  the slow lane
  Example sentencesExamples
  They overcame grinding poverty, tremendous distances on slow transportation with no travel budgets.
  Had I, in some inexplicable way, left my own town earlier than I intended, and really travelled in a slow train?
  A second visit to Venice took place in the midst of the Thirty Years' War, when travel was slow and hazardous.
  It was slow travel, through wet heavy snow along the bank of a small stream, but within less than a mile we came to a kill.
  I was in the slow lane and sensed where the shoulder should be, so I eased the car off the roadway and let it scrape the railing to be sure we were in a safe spot.
  It was clear that the majority of drivers felt that this signage was either redundant or in error and few were driving at 50 mph, even in the slow lane.
  The other, who I know of old, remained in the slow lane.
  The convoy had many days left of this slow travel ahead of it.
  Traffic is travelling at a slow rate with back ups developing that are unnecessary.
  Travel on it was slow but cheap, and heavy loads could be easily shifted.
  It was far away and traveling very slow (seven miles per hour); no need to worry now.
  Police say they are stumped as to why a man decided to walk into the slow lane of a motorway - and was then knocked down and killed in a collision with a car.
  The first half of the Twentieth Century was a time of tremendous change; the last half was a time of fast food and slow travel.
  Not only was travel difficult and slow in the eleventh century, he was also still Duke of Normandy and he had to return to Normandy to maintain his control of this land in France.
  And if you are in the slow lane and too fast then again that is your own fault and you should move up a lane, dependent on how crowded other lanes are.
  However, with all of the traffic headed north and none going south, travel remains slow.
  The fast-lane campaign works on a similar principle to fast and slow lanes in swimming pools.
  Any additional torque provided the same slow seat post travel into the seat tube.
  The cool water and slow pace of travel will make it much more pleasant.
  There are no other cars on the road and the truck drivers just chill in their slow lane and leave the fast one all to you.
  Warren said that to flee the murder scene he drove a blue van from the fast lane on the Naas Road across a slow lane and into a slip road leading to the Boot Road.
4. 1.4 (of a sports field or ground) likely to make the ball bounce or run slowly or to prevent competitors from travelling fast.
  on a slow surface both sets of bowlers bowled straight
  Example sentencesExamples
  Also, I fielded a slow roller and tripped over the mound and fell flat on my face.
  At the Combine, the surface is slow, but at least the conditions are a constant.
  Before the match his high watermark was 33, but he belted the fast men down the ground and slow bowlers square in a performance to embarrass his batsmen.
  Muralitharan's brief cameo came to an end with a straight slow ball by Waqar to signal the end for the Lankans.
  The slower bowlers have often been difficult to attack on the slow St George's surfaces.
  In Jai-Alai you will hear people talk about live or dead balls and fast or slow balls.
  For years and years the Australian turf in good weather has been all against the rising fast ball and slow bowler's spin.
  It was awful up there, cold and damp, and the ground was too slow for my liking.
  Williams is slow off the ball because he's too worded about making a mistake.
  Indeed, slow neutrons often find their way into nuclei more efficiently than fast ones, much as a slow cricket ball is easier to catch.
  It was kind of a slow field and was getting a little bogged down at the end.
  Either table can be played with normal or slow balls, the latter intended to make the going easier for younger hands.
  Finally, Rosen hit a slow grounder toward Detroit third baseman Gerry Priddy and raced as hard as he could for first.
  Injuries often kept Larson off the field, and a slow bat hurt him when he did play.
  The batsmen just couldn't pick my slow looping balls, playing and missing regularly.
  She has shown aptitude on fast and slow ground, is trained by a very able handler who thinks plenty of her and possibly has plenty more to come.
  To me he is a natural sweeper, he reads the game well for a young player but at times he is too slow on the ball and a little languid.
  Maybe a slow surface would have tested his fitness, a lot better.
  He was a fast batter and she'd thrown a series of slow and fast balls.
  Pollock was also unfazed by the fact the Paarl pitch was likely to play slow, which would be to the Lankans' advantage.
2predicative or as complement (of a clock or watch) showing a time earlier than the correct time.
the clock was five minutes slow
Example sentencesExamples
- Does it make sense to make a moral judgement on a deceitful person but not on a slow clock?
- The two files were saved on different dates, he said, because the computer's internal clock was slow and ticked over to midnight in between.
- I was praying that the restaurant clock was slow and I wasn't a minute late.
- The gameplay speed and clock is extremely slow, but these settings can easily be customized.
- All the same results hold - to Alice, it appears that the clock is going slow!
- A slow clock and a bit of sun will metaphorically take the foot of the gas a bit.
- In the old days when bookmakers dominated betting, it was not unknown for slickers to fix a bookie's clock, making it slow.
- In the unlikely event that the chip-based clock is slow, the deviation will also be reflected in the departure time shown on the ticket.
- We are a little late, and I notice the clock is four minutes slow anyway.
3Not prompt to understand, think, or learn.
he's so slow, so unimaginative
Example sentencesExamples
- O-lan is plain looking, dull, and slow, but she is hard working, thrifty, and resourceful.
- The future is not bright for those who still use ox-carts - the ones who are slow or unwilling to absorb new expertise.
- I encourage those people who are a little weak and slow to learn, I try and work with them and drag them along.
- This could mean that in intellectual exercises the child may be ahead, but in learning to ride a bike, for instance, slow to learn such a skill.
- I was slow in learning the skills and my legs and back soon started to ache.
- Private tuitions are not allowed and slow learners are encouraged to come up instead of being condemned.
- He has been a slow learner but has learnt the finer points and has put them into practice for the benefit of the team.
- He was a little slow in understanding our request and we lamented in front of him that you couldn't get good hired help anymore.
- His name is Mathicumus, and he is rather slow in the head, you know.
- The boys get out to a lead with Scout again holding the girls back with her old body and mind just to damn slow for winning challenges.
- Our human minds are slow to understand the awful wickedness of idol worship.
- Jeremy was born with a twisted body, a slow mind and a chronic, terminal illness that had been slowly killing him for all his young life.
- Barrett was slow to learn the defense last season, but he's athletic, fearless and can play the ball.
- Though he has been slow to learn the position, the team plans to work him there more often.
- It seems likely that families with generally lower cognitive levels are going to be more likely to have kids who are slow to learn to read.
- In truth, the sort of skills he's trying to introduce are more easily learnt by youngsters - mature rugby players can be slow learners.
- He was essentially a reactive politician, a late learner, slow to grasp the consequences of change.
- Siobhan and her husband Eamonn, from Montenotte in Cork, realised something was wrong when their toddler was slow to learn to speak.
- You can't coming across as a smug and superior school marm correcting a slow child if you want to succeed.
- This is unfortunate because, as we have been slow to learn, the various sectors of health care are critically interdependent.
- He's a bit slow to learn and it took time for the penny to drop, then he started to finish even though he would have hated the ground.
Synonyms
obtuse, stupid, unperceptive, imperceptive, blind, uncomprehending, unimaginative, insensitive, bovine, stolid, slow-witted, dull-witted, unintelligent, doltish, witless, blockish
informal dense, dim, dim-witted, thick, slow on the uptake, dumb, dopey, not with it, boneheaded, blockheaded, lamebrained, wooden-headed, muttonheaded
British informal dozy
Scottish &amp Northern English informal glaikit
North American informal dumb-ass, chowderheaded
South African informal dof
4Uneventful and rather dull.
a slow and mostly aimless narrative
Example sentencesExamples
- And soon breakfast and the beautiful fact that Thomas is slow, quiet and dull in the mornings.
- They are dull, slow, sober and fearful characters with a weak pulse and a cowardly, slothful disposition.
- Her right foot moved first, then her left, alternating in a rather boring and slow way.
- I recognise that this has been a rather slow and dull debate to this point.
- So I needed something that wasn't so slow, dull or trivial.
- Yeah, it has been a rather slow, boring kind of day, why do you ask?
- What looks like a slow, dull session even for August, it is, under the circumstances, a grand achievement.
- The flashbacks to the uncles' escapades in Africa ought to have been the saving grace of a rather uninteresting slow plot.
- It's been very slow and dull day, but it hasn't been boring.
- It is a long film at 132 minutes, but the story does not feel slow or dull at any point.
- On my first listen, I found the album dull and slow, but subsequent tries have brought out all the strange and lovely stuff going on.
- For a time, perhaps, she had broken away from a slow, uneventful life.
- In fact, since the plodding dreariness is usually broken by bouts of howling misery, the slow points come as rather a pleasant respite.
- Dull slow ballad type tracks that don't really go anywhere.
- I know several IT managers who are neither dull, slow nor reactive.
- He answered all the questions that were put to him in his slow and dull manner, using readymade and overcooked phrases.
- Amassing cash is a surefire - but incredibly slow and dull - way to make a million, assuming that your bank doesn't go bust.
- Our ride was slow and dull, conversationless, through land that seemed to look all the same.
- This game had all the ingredients of the banal and wonderful as it slipped from dull slow football to edge of the seat stuff.
- I found the film to be slow, dull, and ultimately unengaging.
Synonyms
dull, boring, uninteresting, unexciting, uneventful, tedious, tiresome, wearisome, dry, as dry as dust, monotonous, plodding, tame, dreary, lacklustre
informal ho-hum
quiet, sleepy, unprogressive, behind the times, backward, backwoods, backwater
informal dead, one-horse, dead-and-alive
North American informal dullsville
1. 4.1 (of business) with little activity; slack.
  sales were slow
  Example sentencesExamples
  There are plenty of bars in the park but business is slow.
  Fitness vacations were still an anomaly, and business was slow at first.
  Reyes knew his life savings wouldn't last long - especially since business was slow in taking off.
  Even so, business was slow and the phone only rang a few times Monday.
  Since business is slow, the woman has time to be intrigued by the mystery.
  She said though business was slow for the past few years, it recently picked due to higher yields experienced in Zambia.
  Since it is the night shift and business is usually slow during those hours, you will be working alone.
  He works in the Continental Shoemakers' factory and sneaks away to write poetry when business is slow.
  After a long struggle to secure a location on campus, the farmers' market has been plagued with slow business and advertising woes.
  I asked if they were mad at me, and they said I drove people to and from the airport like a champ, but that business was slow.
  The managing owner told the investing owner that business was just slow, but the restaurant seemed as busy as ever.
  Bars and hotels that closed for lack of customers at the height of the outbreak also have begun to reopen, though many say business is still slow.
  Back in the private area, as we waited for a new song to begin, I asked if business was slow.
  For two months afterwards, business was very slow.
  Business was slow as all the kids were either in school or supposed to be.
  Business is slow, so she's practicing on Akiko's daughter, Natsuko.
  They drive a taxi to support their extended family, but business is slow, they said, with the Palestinian economy in tatters.
  I feel kind of hungover and toward the end of the year, business is slow.
  Suppose, for example, that you own a small job shop, and business is slow.
  The strain of the loss of income and the cost of having to set up housekeeping again was compounded by the fact that the portrait business was slow.
  Synonyms
  sluggish, slack, quiet, slow-moving, not busy, inactive, flat, depressed, stagnant, dead
  unproductive
5Photography
(of a film) needing long exposure.
Example sentencesExamples
- This in turn and the slow film, will require longer exposures - hence the tripod.
- One of the advantages of animation is that you can use long exposures and slow film stock to reduce grain and capture a lot of fine detail.
- I switched my flashguns off and held my camera steady for a slow shutter exposure.
- My film was too slow, and I didn't get any good pictures.
1. 5.1 (of a lens) having a small aperture.
  Example sentencesExamples
  The original image was taken on ASA 50 and with a very small aperture to require a slow shutter speed.
6(of a fire or oven) burning or giving off heat gently.
bake the dish in a preheated slow oven
Example sentencesExamples
- Roast one sweet potato with the skin in a slow oven until the potato is soft.
- This is evaporated and coagulated by slow heating, often carried to the point at which the product is quite dry and crumbly.
- Lau, who has over 20 years of experience as a chef, said each soup is simmered on a slow fire for more than 10 hours.
- Back from the pub after a drink with Mr FM to the wonderful smell of stew cooking in the slow oven of the Aga.
- The cheek is cooked in a very slow oven all afternoon, then served on a risotto of carnaroli rice studded with the nuggets of baby cow.
- Add the flour, salt, chilli, and turmeric and fry on a slow fire till the flour is well roasted.
- Braise the pear on a slow fire until the crystal sugar melts.
- Roast chicken legs in a slow oven until the flesh falls off the bone when pressed.
- The seeds would then be sun dried or parched over a slow fire to crack open the hulls to then be threshed by trampling.
- After being boiled on slow fire for 24 hours, the soup was heavy and tasty, with nothing added but a secret combination of herbs.
- The ingredients were placed in a large cauldron and cooked over a slow fire for a whole afternoon until it turned into a pot of delicious soup.
- Boil milk and fry vermicelli in remaining clarified butter gently on slow heat till golden brown.
- Whisk this sharply over a very slow fire, until it assumes the appearance of a light frothy custard.
- Add the other two ingredients and boil on a slow fire until soft.
- Rice, meat, and vegetables are placed in huge containers covered with hot charcoals and heated by slow fire underneath.
- Place the tikkis on the tava and cook on a slow fire, sprinkling oil/ghee at intervals.
- Add rice, fry well, add salt and water, cover and cook on a slow flame, till the water is absorbed.
- Put all the above ingredients in a large utensil and stir on slow fire for two to three hours.
- Allow to simmer on a slow fire till the mixture begins to leave the sides of the pan.
- The pomelo pit can be pounded into small pieces, and then boiled on a slow fire to extract the medicinal essence.

adverb sləʊsloʊ

At a slow pace; slowly.
the train went slower and slower
in combination a slow-moving river
Example sentencesExamples
- Palmer, meanwhile, is moving slow and cautiously through the city looking for a safe location where he can hide.
- James was bringing the ball down, slow paced as he waited for his teammates to set up.
- The day starts slow paced and builds momentum steadily.
- Mexico said that the great delays that had arisen in this matter were the result of the slow-paced justice in the courts.
- I began firing into them, and they seemed to be moving so slow and then the rest of the company joined me.
- When he didn't get sex, he always seemed to move slow and disappointedly.
- Chris moved over to Jimmy slow and cat-like, grabbing him by the chin and studying him for a moment.
- A waitress covers their white tablecloth with steaming chops and chicken, then moves off in a slow two-cycle walk for the rest of us.
- Traffic was slow-paced with incidences of minor accidents.
- She hadn't dated much, so we were moving really slow compared to what I was used to.
- Rick looked up at the ship, it was moving too slow and too late, it might get off some shots but not enough to stop them or to get the breach out of the way.
- Starting slow and slowly speeding up, T.'s freestyle was almost splash-less.
- Move in slow with your face towards hers and slightly tilt your head so you don't bump noses.

verb sləʊsloʊ

[no object]

1Reduce one's speed or the speed of a vehicle or process.
the train slowed to a halt
investment has slowed down
with object he slowed the car
Example sentencesExamples
- The auto slowed, the driver checked his watch and a car full of men came from an empty side street as if on cue.
- The police car then slows to a halt, forcing the errant vehicle to slow with it.
- The bus slows to a crawl, attempting to negotiate narrow streets, taxis and endless traffic lights.
- The car's slowing and I gulp in horror as it stops, right beside the bush I'm hidden behind.
- I knocked it out and jumped out as the vehicle was slowing in traffic.
- The car slows to a stop in front of the house and the engine falls silent.
- All I saw in the accident was a lot of mess and cars slowing everywhere.
- Marianne remembers the train slowing and the cattle doors being slung open.
- His motorbike is believed to have collided with the rear of two cars that had slowed so a third could turn into a farm.
- Cars slowing and turning into the nursery's car park would slow traffic on Leeds Road
- Lights turn to red, and my taxi slows to a halt in a quiet Notting Hill street.
- As the car slowed outside the hotel, mum pointed it out to dad, saying that we had stayed there the last time.
- Just in time, I release the rope, the sail flows out and the boat slows.
- One of the minders gives a warning shout, and moments later, a police cruiser slows to a halt at the compound gate.
- The last surveillance car was calling out the last few moves, the target car was slowing, it stopped.
- At that, the train slows to a stop, and then starts moving in reverse.
- If anyone cuts in front of you, the car slows to the pre-set safe distance then speeds up again once the vehicle moves out of the way.
- He stirs himself as the train slows, ready to catch up with her.
- She declined, pulled up the door lock on her side and, as the car slowed, scrambled out.
- Then as it came close, the car slowed and, on overtaking me, pulled gently to a halt.
Synonyms
reduce speed, go slower, decelerate, lessen one's speed, brake, put the brakes on, slack off
1. 1.1slow down/up Live or work less actively or intensely.
  I wasn't feeling well and had to slow down
  Example sentencesExamples
  It slows down the good employers and ignores the bad he says.
  While the rest of Bulgaria slows down, they may be able to catch up some ground.
  At night, as the user sleeps, the pulse can slow down to such a point that their heart just stops working.
  They start a chemical reaction in your brain - they tell you to slow down and relax.
  Matt told her as he slowed down to rest a little, he was out of shape.
  And lot of people are sort of afraid to put more money on the table which slows down growth.
  Jo told me it is important to keep active to slow down the progression of my condition.
  Traditionally the internet slows down to a trickle, since everybody who is not on the street is likely to be online.
  This process currently slows down and limits the amount of data that can be transmitted along fibre-optic networks.
  Don't ask for opinions from the participants - it slows up the process.
  Synonyms
  take it easy, relax, ease up/off, take a break, take some time off, slack off
  informal let up
  North American informal chill out, hang loose, kick back

Usage

The word slow is normally used as an adjective (a slow learner; the journey was slow). It is also used as an adverb in certain specific contexts, including compounds such as slow-acting and slow-moving and in the expression go slow. Other adverbial use is informal and usually regarded as non-standard, as for example in he drives too slow and go as slow as you can. In such contexts standard English uses slowly instead. The use of slow and slowly in this respect contrasts with the use of fast, which is completely standard in use as both an adjective and an adverb; there is no word ‘fastly’

Phrases

slow but (or and) sure

Not quick but achieving the required result eventually.
I am making good progress—slow but sure
Example sentencesExamples
- Trying to keep the bike as still as possible, he kicked off and despite Isabel's woozy protestations, they made it to her dorm with slow but sure progress.
- Brian took the animal home and the recovery has been slow but sure.
- So now - we'll get there slow but sure.
- He was slow but sure, and he always got there in the end.
- Improvement had been slow but sure, although she was still vomiting and having bad nightmares regularly.
- I chose a stately breaststroke, slow but sure, that meant I could keep an eye on our target.
- This drug started to run its course slow but sure.
- People, slow but sure, are becoming more and more tolerable of different faiths, cultures, and races.
- Hearing nothing they continued on, their steps slow and sure, not making a sound.
- It's a project that's been in the works for 2 years, going slow but sure.

Derivatives

slowish

adjective

I can see enough to cycle at a slowish pace, but when I'm cycling with the bunch now I cycle with people who do know that I have limited vision and they can watch out for me a bit.
Example sentencesExamples
- Toscanini's sense of theater allows them to remain gripping, even at slowish tempos, and the NBC Symphony Orchestra plays them with superhuman concentration.
- I wonder if this is it, the slowish descent to my demise.
- Despite his slowish running, his bike speed was good enough to propel him into fourth place in the 45-49 age group.
- He didn't like the slowish early pace of the race and didn't take kindly to Fallon holding him up.

Origin

Old English slāw 'slow-witted, sluggish', of Germanic origin.

Rhymes

aglow, ago, alow, although, apropos, art nouveau, Bamako, Bardot, beau, Beaujolais Nouveau, below, bestow, blow, bo, Boileau, bons mots, Bordeaux, Bow, bravo, bro, cachepot, cheerio, Coe, crow, Defoe, de trop, doe, doh, dos-à-dos, do-si-do, dough, dzo, Flo, floe, flow, foe, foreknow, foreshow, forgo, Foucault, froe, glow, go, good-oh, go-slow, grow, gung-ho, Heathrow, heave-ho, heigh-ho, hello, ho, hoe, ho-ho, jo, Joe, kayo, know, lo, low, maillot, malapropos, Marceau, mho, Miró, mo, Mohs, Monroe, mot, mow, Munro, no, Noh, no-show, oh, oho, outgo, outgrow, owe, Perrault, pho, po, Poe, pro, quid pro quo, reshow, righto, roe, Rouault, row, Rowe, sew, shew, show, sloe, snow, so, soh, sow, status quo, stow, Stowe, strow, tally-ho, though, throw, tic-tac-toe, to-and-fro, toe, touch-and-go, tow, trow, undergo, undersow, voe, whacko, whoa, wo, woe, Xuzhou, yo, yo-ho-ho, Zhengzhou, Zhou

Definition of slow in US English:

slow

adjectiveslōsloʊ

1Moving or operating, or designed to do so, only at a low speed; not quick or fast.
a time when diesel cars were slow and noisy
a slow dot-matrix printer
Example sentencesExamples
- To sum up, to show action and movement, select a slow shutter speed and stand side on to the action.
- On the slow speed circuits it's proved that it's fast at Imola and I think here it's proved that it's quick and reliable on a high-speed circuit.
- That United weren't streets ahead by half-time was down to their slow, slow, quick, quick, slow approach in the opening period.
- The days are just moving so fast and slow at the same time, it's difficult to keep track.
- The alternatives are various forms of death - quick, slow, agonising, or imperceptible.
- A lorry driver, stopped because of his slow speed, was found to be more than two-and-a-half times the legal alcohol limit, a court heard.
- No more waiting for slow websites with internet speeds up to 10 times faster than a normal 56k service.
- It was especially difficult because of the slow speed at which the criminal justice system operated.
- The speeds are quite slow, but fast enough for a little surfing and emails that aren't way too big.
- The term passing lanes implies that the road is divided into slow and fast moving traffic lanes.
- So it seems to me that the alert system was a little slow in operating.
- Well, because of its speed, which was slow, and its size, which was huge, Frances was and is a colossal rain maker.
- Movements are large and appear relatively slow in the techniques designed for armored combat.
- And if the heart rate gets too slow, it will speed it up like a pacemaker.
- Motorbikes in the summer are the worst for speed and caravans create long lines of very slow moving traffic.
- My speed was so slow that bicycles were actually overtaking me.
- In our tests, this printer was slow, noisy and yielded the least impressive results, even with the subtle photo cartridge in place.
- He tends to swell held notes in both slow and fast movements, perhaps a nod to authentic performance.
- The end repeats the design so far - slow followed by fast - in more concentrated form.
- It made short quick movements then proceeded at a 90 degrees from the original movement at a slow speed.
Synonyms
unhurried, leisurely, measured, moderate, deliberate, steady, sedate, slow-moving, slow-going, easy, relaxed, unrushed, gentle, undemanding, comfortable
1. 1.1 Taking a long time to perform a specified action.
  she was a slow reader
  with infinitive large organizations can be slow to change
  Example sentencesExamples
  The story of the Prudential has stopped being one of irritating slow performance and become something much more important.
  I'll also just mention that I am a very slow reader.
  The autonomic function tests were performed as in the slow breathing group and the values were recorded before and after the study.
  David gave a first class performance in slow airs, jigs and hornpipes.
  On the initial attempts, it is helpful for the swimmer to perform long, slow strokes and a long side kick while getting a breath.
  This was important for his original readers in a country slow to catch musical tastes from elsewhere.
  Users can continue to use the web-based file upload utility gratis, but this can be slow, reader Helen Cain points out.
  While performing it appears slow and gentle but every bit as accomplished as it higher powered and more modern cousins.
  For full effect and for safety, flyes must be performed in a slow and controlled manner.
  Performance is somewhat slow, but this is not unusual for filters doing complex calculations.
  The dancers form a circle or a long line, holding their clasped hands high in the air to perform this slow, graceful dance.
  Only minutes before office workers performed boozy slow dances around this suburban pub to chart hits.
  This eliminates the multiple acknowledgments that create congestion and slow performance.
  However, it doesn't seem to be slow as a CD-ROM reader, so most users might not notice.
  The national press has become a shadow of its former self, a heavy beast too heavy to move, too slow to maintain the reader's attention.
  Saying this, James loosed a volley from all of his guns while performing a slow barrel roll.
  The hard disk is nearly full, the desktop has about 100 items on it, performance is achingly slow.
  The parallel port interface of our media card reader was too slow.
  The long, slow repetition of simple, but heavily detuned chords mimics, in a way, the chanting of monks.
  Still, transactions were delayed, data was missing and system performance was slow.
2. 1.2 Lasting or taking a long time.
  a slow process
  the journey home was slow
  Example sentencesExamples
  Actually, there is, but it's a slow, long process, which needs a great deal of will and a huge amount of effort from pivotal people in both groups.
  Most of our boxes are unpacked now but there's chaos everywhere and it's a slow process of getting everything sorted out.
  He has called for the council and police to work together and make travellers move on immediately from council land, as the current legal process is too slow.
  Goux apologised to the 180 candidate jurors for the slow selection process.
  As you can imagine, it was a lot of waiting and a lot of anxious moments, but it was a very slow and deliberate process.
  It is a very slow process, promising a little progress at a time.
  Snail mating is a slow, languorous process, but it also involves some heavy weaponry.
  So I fired up the computer, pulled the blind against the fading sky, and settled down to a slow, steady effort.
  Scientists hope patients will adapt, though the learning process might be slow, like a child beginning to recognise shapes and colours.
  It's a slow process but it's time well spent to educate others and provide tools on how to live gently and harmoniously on our planet.
  For Mukherjee, the journey to becoming an American was a slow process.
  The grieving process is typically slow, gradually winding along until it eventually lessens.
  The evolution of humankind is a slow and tortuous process.
  ‘Everything is progressing well but it is a slow process,’ he explained.
  Well I don't know what sort of speedy trial law they have in Texas, but the legal process is inevitably slow.
  This has been a slow process is was initiated several years ago and has raised doubts about the commerciality of the project.
  I don't remember it happening all at once - it must have been a slow process, like ice breaking away from a glacier.
  Though it was reported that attracting foreign investment has accelerated since 1997, the process is still slow.
  A number of experimenters and sanitation facilities have been extracting gas from sewage for years now, but it's diluted so much that the process is slow.
  It takes a long, slow process to build a brand name.
  But the push by environmentalists to ban the trade is a slow process.
  The process of deterioration is slow, but steady - the kind of food that is consumed being the culprit.
  But this is a slow process and it could be a matter of months before we have any results.
  Currently, the process is slow, expensive and done manually.
  To create a show of this nature is a slow and steady process of workshopping and experiment.
  It's a slow process, rivaled only by the time it takes to evict someone from their apartment in New York.
  Much of the main building was covered by one of the collapsed walls, making a comprehensive search of the site a painstakingly slow process.
  Elizabeth has nothing but praise for the service, but she pointed out that it was a slow and steady process, as she had to learn to cope with her fear.
  Detainees live absent any points of reference, the whole process is very slow, and that detainees have the feeling that they are living in limbo.
  Doctors kept them in an artificial coma as their bodies began the slow process of repairing the damage caused while they were both clinically dead.
  Technically South and North Korea are still at war, but Kim Dae Jung's achievement has been a slow process of reconciliation.
  Changing behavior, as we are well aware, is a very slow process.
  Yet the slow process of reconstruction, following the ravages of a diamond-fuelled civil war, continues.
  Well, there's a very slow and cautious process of reform in Damascus.
  But Mr Jeffs called the sifting through of so much information ‘a long, slow process’.
  Synonyms
  long-drawn-out, time-consuming, lengthy, long-lasting, protracted, prolonged, interminable
3. 1.3attributive Not allowing or intended for fast travel.
  the slow lane
  Example sentencesExamples
  The fast-lane campaign works on a similar principle to fast and slow lanes in swimming pools.
  Not only was travel difficult and slow in the eleventh century, he was also still Duke of Normandy and he had to return to Normandy to maintain his control of this land in France.
  They overcame grinding poverty, tremendous distances on slow transportation with no travel budgets.
  Traffic is travelling at a slow rate with back ups developing that are unnecessary.
  It was far away and traveling very slow (seven miles per hour); no need to worry now.
  A second visit to Venice took place in the midst of the Thirty Years' War, when travel was slow and hazardous.
  However, with all of the traffic headed north and none going south, travel remains slow.
  It was slow travel, through wet heavy snow along the bank of a small stream, but within less than a mile we came to a kill.
  Travel on it was slow but cheap, and heavy loads could be easily shifted.
  It was clear that the majority of drivers felt that this signage was either redundant or in error and few were driving at 50 mph, even in the slow lane.
  I was in the slow lane and sensed where the shoulder should be, so I eased the car off the roadway and let it scrape the railing to be sure we were in a safe spot.
  Had I, in some inexplicable way, left my own town earlier than I intended, and really travelled in a slow train?
  There are no other cars on the road and the truck drivers just chill in their slow lane and leave the fast one all to you.
  The first half of the Twentieth Century was a time of tremendous change; the last half was a time of fast food and slow travel.
  Warren said that to flee the murder scene he drove a blue van from the fast lane on the Naas Road across a slow lane and into a slip road leading to the Boot Road.
  Any additional torque provided the same slow seat post travel into the seat tube.
  Police say they are stumped as to why a man decided to walk into the slow lane of a motorway - and was then knocked down and killed in a collision with a car.
  And if you are in the slow lane and too fast then again that is your own fault and you should move up a lane, dependent on how crowded other lanes are.
  The convoy had many days left of this slow travel ahead of it.
  The cool water and slow pace of travel will make it much more pleasant.
  The other, who I know of old, remained in the slow lane.
4. 1.4 (of a playing field) likely to make the ball bounce or run slowly or to prevent competitors from traveling fast.
  Example sentencesExamples
  Injuries often kept Larson off the field, and a slow bat hurt him when he did play.
  At the Combine, the surface is slow, but at least the conditions are a constant.
  Muralitharan's brief cameo came to an end with a straight slow ball by Waqar to signal the end for the Lankans.
  Before the match his high watermark was 33, but he belted the fast men down the ground and slow bowlers square in a performance to embarrass his batsmen.
  Pollock was also unfazed by the fact the Paarl pitch was likely to play slow, which would be to the Lankans' advantage.
  Also, I fielded a slow roller and tripped over the mound and fell flat on my face.
  He was a fast batter and she'd thrown a series of slow and fast balls.
  Either table can be played with normal or slow balls, the latter intended to make the going easier for younger hands.
  To me he is a natural sweeper, he reads the game well for a young player but at times he is too slow on the ball and a little languid.
  Williams is slow off the ball because he's too worded about making a mistake.
  She has shown aptitude on fast and slow ground, is trained by a very able handler who thinks plenty of her and possibly has plenty more to come.
  In Jai-Alai you will hear people talk about live or dead balls and fast or slow balls.
  For years and years the Australian turf in good weather has been all against the rising fast ball and slow bowler's spin.
  It was awful up there, cold and damp, and the ground was too slow for my liking.
  Maybe a slow surface would have tested his fitness, a lot better.
  Indeed, slow neutrons often find their way into nuclei more efficiently than fast ones, much as a slow cricket ball is easier to catch.
  It was kind of a slow field and was getting a little bogged down at the end.
  The slower bowlers have often been difficult to attack on the slow St George's surfaces.
  The batsmen just couldn't pick my slow looping balls, playing and missing regularly.
  Finally, Rosen hit a slow grounder toward Detroit third baseman Gerry Priddy and raced as hard as he could for first.
2predicative or as complement (of a clock or watch) showing a time earlier than the correct time.
the clock was five minutes slow
Example sentencesExamples
- Does it make sense to make a moral judgement on a deceitful person but not on a slow clock?
- I was praying that the restaurant clock was slow and I wasn't a minute late.
- We are a little late, and I notice the clock is four minutes slow anyway.
- In the unlikely event that the chip-based clock is slow, the deviation will also be reflected in the departure time shown on the ticket.
- The gameplay speed and clock is extremely slow, but these settings can easily be customized.
- In the old days when bookmakers dominated betting, it was not unknown for slickers to fix a bookie's clock, making it slow.
- A slow clock and a bit of sun will metaphorically take the foot of the gas a bit.
- The two files were saved on different dates, he said, because the computer's internal clock was slow and ticked over to midnight in between.
- All the same results hold - to Alice, it appears that the clock is going slow!
3Not prompt to understand, think, or learn.
he's so slow, so unimaginative
Example sentencesExamples
- I was slow in learning the skills and my legs and back soon started to ache.
- I encourage those people who are a little weak and slow to learn, I try and work with them and drag them along.
- He was a little slow in understanding our request and we lamented in front of him that you couldn't get good hired help anymore.
- This could mean that in intellectual exercises the child may be ahead, but in learning to ride a bike, for instance, slow to learn such a skill.
- His name is Mathicumus, and he is rather slow in the head, you know.
- Private tuitions are not allowed and slow learners are encouraged to come up instead of being condemned.
- The future is not bright for those who still use ox-carts - the ones who are slow or unwilling to absorb new expertise.
- He has been a slow learner but has learnt the finer points and has put them into practice for the benefit of the team.
- Our human minds are slow to understand the awful wickedness of idol worship.
- Barrett was slow to learn the defense last season, but he's athletic, fearless and can play the ball.
- He's a bit slow to learn and it took time for the penny to drop, then he started to finish even though he would have hated the ground.
- The boys get out to a lead with Scout again holding the girls back with her old body and mind just to damn slow for winning challenges.
- He was essentially a reactive politician, a late learner, slow to grasp the consequences of change.
- You can't coming across as a smug and superior school marm correcting a slow child if you want to succeed.
- Jeremy was born with a twisted body, a slow mind and a chronic, terminal illness that had been slowly killing him for all his young life.
- This is unfortunate because, as we have been slow to learn, the various sectors of health care are critically interdependent.
- It seems likely that families with generally lower cognitive levels are going to be more likely to have kids who are slow to learn to read.
- O-lan is plain looking, dull, and slow, but she is hard working, thrifty, and resourceful.
- In truth, the sort of skills he's trying to introduce are more easily learnt by youngsters - mature rugby players can be slow learners.
- Though he has been slow to learn the position, the team plans to work him there more often.
- Siobhan and her husband Eamonn, from Montenotte in Cork, realised something was wrong when their toddler was slow to learn to speak.
Synonyms
obtuse, stupid, unperceptive, imperceptive, blind, uncomprehending, unimaginative, insensitive, bovine, stolid, slow-witted, dull-witted, unintelligent, doltish, witless, blockish
4Uneventful and rather dull.
a slow and mostly aimless narrative
Example sentencesExamples
- Amassing cash is a surefire - but incredibly slow and dull - way to make a million, assuming that your bank doesn't go bust.
- Dull slow ballad type tracks that don't really go anywhere.
- For a time, perhaps, she had broken away from a slow, uneventful life.
- Our ride was slow and dull, conversationless, through land that seemed to look all the same.
- What looks like a slow, dull session even for August, it is, under the circumstances, a grand achievement.
- So I needed something that wasn't so slow, dull or trivial.
- I found the film to be slow, dull, and ultimately unengaging.
- It is a long film at 132 minutes, but the story does not feel slow or dull at any point.
- The flashbacks to the uncles' escapades in Africa ought to have been the saving grace of a rather uninteresting slow plot.
- This game had all the ingredients of the banal and wonderful as it slipped from dull slow football to edge of the seat stuff.
- It's been very slow and dull day, but it hasn't been boring.
- And soon breakfast and the beautiful fact that Thomas is slow, quiet and dull in the mornings.
- In fact, since the plodding dreariness is usually broken by bouts of howling misery, the slow points come as rather a pleasant respite.
- I recognise that this has been a rather slow and dull debate to this point.
- Yeah, it has been a rather slow, boring kind of day, why do you ask?
- On my first listen, I found the album dull and slow, but subsequent tries have brought out all the strange and lovely stuff going on.
- Her right foot moved first, then her left, alternating in a rather boring and slow way.
- They are dull, slow, sober and fearful characters with a weak pulse and a cowardly, slothful disposition.
- I know several IT managers who are neither dull, slow nor reactive.
- He answered all the questions that were put to him in his slow and dull manner, using readymade and overcooked phrases.
Synonyms
dull, boring, uninteresting, unexciting, uneventful, tedious, tiresome, wearisome, dry, as dry as dust, monotonous, plodding, tame, dreary, lacklustre
quiet, sleepy, unprogressive, behind the times, backward, backwoods, backwater
1. 4.1 (of business) with little activity; slack.
  sales were slow
  Example sentencesExamples
  He works in the Continental Shoemakers' factory and sneaks away to write poetry when business is slow.
  For two months afterwards, business was very slow.
  Suppose, for example, that you own a small job shop, and business is slow.
  Business was slow as all the kids were either in school or supposed to be.
  Back in the private area, as we waited for a new song to begin, I asked if business was slow.
  Fitness vacations were still an anomaly, and business was slow at first.
  Since business is slow, the woman has time to be intrigued by the mystery.
  The strain of the loss of income and the cost of having to set up housekeeping again was compounded by the fact that the portrait business was slow.
  Business is slow, so she's practicing on Akiko's daughter, Natsuko.
  I asked if they were mad at me, and they said I drove people to and from the airport like a champ, but that business was slow.
  Since it is the night shift and business is usually slow during those hours, you will be working alone.
  Bars and hotels that closed for lack of customers at the height of the outbreak also have begun to reopen, though many say business is still slow.
  There are plenty of bars in the park but business is slow.
  Reyes knew his life savings wouldn't last long - especially since business was slow in taking off.
  Even so, business was slow and the phone only rang a few times Monday.
  I feel kind of hungover and toward the end of the year, business is slow.
  They drive a taxi to support their extended family, but business is slow, they said, with the Palestinian economy in tatters.
  She said though business was slow for the past few years, it recently picked due to higher yields experienced in Zambia.
  The managing owner told the investing owner that business was just slow, but the restaurant seemed as busy as ever.
  After a long struggle to secure a location on campus, the farmers' market has been plagued with slow business and advertising woes.
  Synonyms
  sluggish, slack, quiet, slow-moving, not busy, inactive, flat, depressed, stagnant, dead
5Photography
(of a film) needing long exposure.
Example sentencesExamples
- I switched my flashguns off and held my camera steady for a slow shutter exposure.
- One of the advantages of animation is that you can use long exposures and slow film stock to reduce grain and capture a lot of fine detail.
- This in turn and the slow film, will require longer exposures - hence the tripod.
- My film was too slow, and I didn't get any good pictures.
1. 5.1 (of a lens) having a small aperture.
  Example sentencesExamples
  The original image was taken on ASA 50 and with a very small aperture to require a slow shutter speed.
6(of a fire or oven) burning or giving off heat gently.
bake the dish in a preheated slow oven
Example sentencesExamples
- Add rice, fry well, add salt and water, cover and cook on a slow flame, till the water is absorbed.
- Roast one sweet potato with the skin in a slow oven until the potato is soft.
- Back from the pub after a drink with Mr FM to the wonderful smell of stew cooking in the slow oven of the Aga.
- Place the tikkis on the tava and cook on a slow fire, sprinkling oil/ghee at intervals.
- Whisk this sharply over a very slow fire, until it assumes the appearance of a light frothy custard.
- After being boiled on slow fire for 24 hours, the soup was heavy and tasty, with nothing added but a secret combination of herbs.
- Boil milk and fry vermicelli in remaining clarified butter gently on slow heat till golden brown.
- Roast chicken legs in a slow oven until the flesh falls off the bone when pressed.
- Add the other two ingredients and boil on a slow fire until soft.
- The pomelo pit can be pounded into small pieces, and then boiled on a slow fire to extract the medicinal essence.
- Allow to simmer on a slow fire till the mixture begins to leave the sides of the pan.
- The ingredients were placed in a large cauldron and cooked over a slow fire for a whole afternoon until it turned into a pot of delicious soup.
- This is evaporated and coagulated by slow heating, often carried to the point at which the product is quite dry and crumbly.
- The cheek is cooked in a very slow oven all afternoon, then served on a risotto of carnaroli rice studded with the nuggets of baby cow.
- Lau, who has over 20 years of experience as a chef, said each soup is simmered on a slow fire for more than 10 hours.
- Add the flour, salt, chilli, and turmeric and fry on a slow fire till the flour is well roasted.
- Put all the above ingredients in a large utensil and stir on slow fire for two to three hours.
- Braise the pear on a slow fire until the crystal sugar melts.
- The seeds would then be sun dried or parched over a slow fire to crack open the hulls to then be threshed by trampling.
- Rice, meat, and vegetables are placed in huge containers covered with hot charcoals and heated by slow fire underneath.

adverbslōsloʊ

At a slow pace; slowly.
the train went slower and slower
in combination a slow-moving river
Example sentencesExamples
- Palmer, meanwhile, is moving slow and cautiously through the city looking for a safe location where he can hide.
- A waitress covers their white tablecloth with steaming chops and chicken, then moves off in a slow two-cycle walk for the rest of us.
- She hadn't dated much, so we were moving really slow compared to what I was used to.
- Rick looked up at the ship, it was moving too slow and too late, it might get off some shots but not enough to stop them or to get the breach out of the way.
- I began firing into them, and they seemed to be moving so slow and then the rest of the company joined me.
- Traffic was slow-paced with incidences of minor accidents.
- When he didn't get sex, he always seemed to move slow and disappointedly.
- Chris moved over to Jimmy slow and cat-like, grabbing him by the chin and studying him for a moment.
- The day starts slow paced and builds momentum steadily.
- James was bringing the ball down, slow paced as he waited for his teammates to set up.
- Starting slow and slowly speeding up, T.'s freestyle was almost splash-less.
- Mexico said that the great delays that had arisen in this matter were the result of the slow-paced justice in the courts.
- Move in slow with your face towards hers and slightly tilt your head so you don't bump noses.

verbslōsloʊ

[no object]

1Reduce one's speed or the speed of a vehicle or process.
the train slowed to a halt
investment has slowed down
with object he slowed the car
Example sentencesExamples
- If anyone cuts in front of you, the car slows to the pre-set safe distance then speeds up again once the vehicle moves out of the way.
- The car slows to a stop in front of the house and the engine falls silent.
- The car's slowing and I gulp in horror as it stops, right beside the bush I'm hidden behind.
- All I saw in the accident was a lot of mess and cars slowing everywhere.
- He stirs himself as the train slows, ready to catch up with her.
- The auto slowed, the driver checked his watch and a car full of men came from an empty side street as if on cue.
- The police car then slows to a halt, forcing the errant vehicle to slow with it.
- I knocked it out and jumped out as the vehicle was slowing in traffic.
- Just in time, I release the rope, the sail flows out and the boat slows.
- One of the minders gives a warning shout, and moments later, a police cruiser slows to a halt at the compound gate.
- His motorbike is believed to have collided with the rear of two cars that had slowed so a third could turn into a farm.
- The last surveillance car was calling out the last few moves, the target car was slowing, it stopped.
- At that, the train slows to a stop, and then starts moving in reverse.
- She declined, pulled up the door lock on her side and, as the car slowed, scrambled out.
- As the car slowed outside the hotel, mum pointed it out to dad, saying that we had stayed there the last time.
- Marianne remembers the train slowing and the cattle doors being slung open.
- Cars slowing and turning into the nursery's car park would slow traffic on Leeds Road
- Lights turn to red, and my taxi slows to a halt in a quiet Notting Hill street.
- Then as it came close, the car slowed and, on overtaking me, pulled gently to a halt.
- The bus slows to a crawl, attempting to negotiate narrow streets, taxis and endless traffic lights.
Synonyms
reduce speed, go slower, decelerate, lessen one's speed, brake, put the brakes on, slack off
1. 1.1slow down/up Live or work less actively or intensely.
  I wasn't feeling well and had to slow down
  Example sentencesExamples
  They start a chemical reaction in your brain - they tell you to slow down and relax.
  And lot of people are sort of afraid to put more money on the table which slows down growth.
  Traditionally the internet slows down to a trickle, since everybody who is not on the street is likely to be online.
  This process currently slows down and limits the amount of data that can be transmitted along fibre-optic networks.
  It slows down the good employers and ignores the bad he says.
  Jo told me it is important to keep active to slow down the progression of my condition.
  Matt told her as he slowed down to rest a little, he was out of shape.
  Don't ask for opinions from the participants - it slows up the process.
  While the rest of Bulgaria slows down, they may be able to catch up some ground.
  At night, as the user sleeps, the pulse can slow down to such a point that their heart just stops working.
  Synonyms
  take it easy, relax, ease off, ease up, take a break, take some time off, slack off

Usage

The word slow is normally used as an adjective (a slow learner; the journey was slow). It is also used as an adverb in certain specific contexts, including compounds such as slow-acting and slow-moving and in the expression go slow. Other adverbial use is informal and usually regarded as nonstandard, as in he drives too slow and go as slow as you can. In such contexts, standard English uses slowly instead. The use of slow and slowly in this respect contrasts with the use of fast, which is completely standard in use as both an adjective and an adverb; there is no word 'fastly'

Phrases

slow but (or and) sure

Not quick but achieving the required result eventually.
a slow but sure increase in the price of gold
Example sentencesExamples
- I chose a stately breaststroke, slow but sure, that meant I could keep an eye on our target.
- This drug started to run its course slow but sure.
- Brian took the animal home and the recovery has been slow but sure.
- Hearing nothing they continued on, their steps slow and sure, not making a sound.
- He was slow but sure, and he always got there in the end.
- People, slow but sure, are becoming more and more tolerable of different faiths, cultures, and races.
- Improvement had been slow but sure, although she was still vomiting and having bad nightmares regularly.
- Trying to keep the bike as still as possible, he kicked off and despite Isabel's woozy protestations, they made it to her dorm with slow but sure progress.
- So now - we'll get there slow but sure.
- It's a project that's been in the works for 2 years, going slow but sure.

Origin

Old English slāw ‘slow-witted, sluggish’, of Germanic origin.

单词	slow
释义	Definition of slow in English: slow adjective sləʊsloʊ 1Moving or operating, or designed to do so, only at a low speed; not quick or fast. until recently diesel cars were slow and noisy a slow dot-matrix printer Example sentencesExamples Well, because of its speed, which was slow, and its size, which was huge, Frances was and is a colossal rain maker. A lorry driver, stopped because of his slow speed, was found to be more than two-and-a-half times the legal alcohol limit, a court heard. To sum up, to show action and movement, select a slow shutter speed and stand side on to the action. Motorbikes in the summer are the worst for speed and caravans create long lines of very slow moving traffic. So it seems to me that the alert system was a little slow in operating. It made short quick movements then proceeded at a 90 degrees from the original movement at a slow speed. The term passing lanes implies that the road is divided into slow and fast moving traffic lanes. That United weren't streets ahead by half-time was down to their slow, slow, quick, quick, slow approach in the opening period. It was especially difficult because of the slow speed at which the criminal justice system operated. The speeds are quite slow, but fast enough for a little surfing and emails that aren't way too big. No more waiting for slow websites with internet speeds up to 10 times faster than a normal 56k service. He tends to swell held notes in both slow and fast movements, perhaps a nod to authentic performance. My speed was so slow that bicycles were actually overtaking me. And if the heart rate gets too slow, it will speed it up like a pacemaker. On the slow speed circuits it's proved that it's fast at Imola and I think here it's proved that it's quick and reliable on a high-speed circuit. The days are just moving so fast and slow at the same time, it's difficult to keep track. The alternatives are various forms of death - quick, slow, agonising, or imperceptible. Movements are large and appear relatively slow in the techniques designed for armored combat. In our tests, this printer was slow, noisy and yielded the least impressive results, even with the subtle photo cartridge in place. The end repeats the design so far - slow followed by fast - in more concentrated form. Synonyms unhurried, leisurely, measured, moderate, deliberate, steady, sedate, slow-moving, slow-going, easy, relaxed, unrushed, gentle, undemanding, comfortable ponderous, plodding, laboured, dawdling, loitering, lagging, laggard, sluggish, sluggardly, snail-like, tortoise-like, leaden-footed, leaden, creeping North American informal lollygagging 1.1 Taking a long time to perform a specified action. she was rather a slow reader with infinitive large organizations can be slow to change Example sentencesExamples The hard disk is nearly full, the desktop has about 100 items on it, performance is achingly slow. The autonomic function tests were performed as in the slow breathing group and the values were recorded before and after the study. I'll also just mention that I am a very slow reader. The story of the Prudential has stopped being one of irritating slow performance and become something much more important. The parallel port interface of our media card reader was too slow. While performing it appears slow and gentle but every bit as accomplished as it higher powered and more modern cousins. The dancers form a circle or a long line, holding their clasped hands high in the air to perform this slow, graceful dance. On the initial attempts, it is helpful for the swimmer to perform long, slow strokes and a long side kick while getting a breath. David gave a first class performance in slow airs, jigs and hornpipes. This was important for his original readers in a country slow to catch musical tastes from elsewhere. Only minutes before office workers performed boozy slow dances around this suburban pub to chart hits. For full effect and for safety, flyes must be performed in a slow and controlled manner. The long, slow repetition of simple, but heavily detuned chords mimics, in a way, the chanting of monks. Performance is somewhat slow, but this is not unusual for filters doing complex calculations. Saying this, James loosed a volley from all of his guns while performing a slow barrel roll. The national press has become a shadow of its former self, a heavy beast too heavy to move, too slow to maintain the reader's attention. However, it doesn't seem to be slow as a CD-ROM reader, so most users might not notice. Users can continue to use the web-based file upload utility gratis, but this can be slow, reader Helen Cain points out. Still, transactions were delayed, data was missing and system performance was slow. This eliminates the multiple acknowledgments that create congestion and slow performance. 1.2 Lasting or taking a long time. a slow process the journey home was slow Example sentencesExamples It is a very slow process, promising a little progress at a time. I don't remember it happening all at once - it must have been a slow process, like ice breaking away from a glacier. Doctors kept them in an artificial coma as their bodies began the slow process of repairing the damage caused while they were both clinically dead. ‘Everything is progressing well but it is a slow process,’ he explained. It's a slow process but it's time well spent to educate others and provide tools on how to live gently and harmoniously on our planet. As you can imagine, it was a lot of waiting and a lot of anxious moments, but it was a very slow and deliberate process. For Mukherjee, the journey to becoming an American was a slow process. Snail mating is a slow, languorous process, but it also involves some heavy weaponry. To create a show of this nature is a slow and steady process of workshopping and experiment. Much of the main building was covered by one of the collapsed walls, making a comprehensive search of the site a painstakingly slow process. The grieving process is typically slow, gradually winding along until it eventually lessens. But the push by environmentalists to ban the trade is a slow process. Currently, the process is slow, expensive and done manually. It's a slow process, rivaled only by the time it takes to evict someone from their apartment in New York. Most of our boxes are unpacked now but there's chaos everywhere and it's a slow process of getting everything sorted out. The evolution of humankind is a slow and tortuous process. Well I don't know what sort of speedy trial law they have in Texas, but the legal process is inevitably slow. Yet the slow process of reconstruction, following the ravages of a diamond-fuelled civil war, continues. So I fired up the computer, pulled the blind against the fading sky, and settled down to a slow, steady effort. Detainees live absent any points of reference, the whole process is very slow, and that detainees have the feeling that they are living in limbo. A number of experimenters and sanitation facilities have been extracting gas from sewage for years now, but it's diluted so much that the process is slow. Technically South and North Korea are still at war, but Kim Dae Jung's achievement has been a slow process of reconciliation. But Mr Jeffs called the sifting through of so much information ‘a long, slow process’. Though it was reported that attracting foreign investment has accelerated since 1997, the process is still slow. The process of deterioration is slow, but steady - the kind of food that is consumed being the culprit. Changing behavior, as we are well aware, is a very slow process. He has called for the council and police to work together and make travellers move on immediately from council land, as the current legal process is too slow. Scientists hope patients will adapt, though the learning process might be slow, like a child beginning to recognise shapes and colours. But this is a slow process and it could be a matter of months before we have any results. Goux apologised to the 180 candidate jurors for the slow selection process. Actually, there is, but it's a slow, long process, which needs a great deal of will and a huge amount of effort from pivotal people in both groups. Well, there's a very slow and cautious process of reform in Damascus. This has been a slow process is was initiated several years ago and has raised doubts about the commerciality of the project. It takes a long, slow process to build a brand name. Elizabeth has nothing but praise for the service, but she pointed out that it was a slow and steady process, as she had to learn to cope with her fear. Synonyms long-drawn-out, time-consuming, lengthy, long-lasting, protracted, prolonged, interminable gradual, progressive 1.3 Not allowing or intended for fast travel. the slow lane Example sentencesExamples They overcame grinding poverty, tremendous distances on slow transportation with no travel budgets. Had I, in some inexplicable way, left my own town earlier than I intended, and really travelled in a slow train? A second visit to Venice took place in the midst of the Thirty Years' War, when travel was slow and hazardous. It was slow travel, through wet heavy snow along the bank of a small stream, but within less than a mile we came to a kill. I was in the slow lane and sensed where the shoulder should be, so I eased the car off the roadway and let it scrape the railing to be sure we were in a safe spot. It was clear that the majority of drivers felt that this signage was either redundant or in error and few were driving at 50 mph, even in the slow lane. The other, who I know of old, remained in the slow lane. The convoy had many days left of this slow travel ahead of it. Traffic is travelling at a slow rate with back ups developing that are unnecessary. Travel on it was slow but cheap, and heavy loads could be easily shifted. It was far away and traveling very slow (seven miles per hour); no need to worry now. Police say they are stumped as to why a man decided to walk into the slow lane of a motorway - and was then knocked down and killed in a collision with a car. The first half of the Twentieth Century was a time of tremendous change; the last half was a time of fast food and slow travel. Not only was travel difficult and slow in the eleventh century, he was also still Duke of Normandy and he had to return to Normandy to maintain his control of this land in France. And if you are in the slow lane and too fast then again that is your own fault and you should move up a lane, dependent on how crowded other lanes are. However, with all of the traffic headed north and none going south, travel remains slow. The fast-lane campaign works on a similar principle to fast and slow lanes in swimming pools. Any additional torque provided the same slow seat post travel into the seat tube. The cool water and slow pace of travel will make it much more pleasant. There are no other cars on the road and the truck drivers just chill in their slow lane and leave the fast one all to you. Warren said that to flee the murder scene he drove a blue van from the fast lane on the Naas Road across a slow lane and into a slip road leading to the Boot Road. 1.4 (of a sports field or ground) likely to make the ball bounce or run slowly or to prevent competitors from travelling fast. on a slow surface both sets of bowlers bowled straight Example sentencesExamples Also, I fielded a slow roller and tripped over the mound and fell flat on my face. At the Combine, the surface is slow, but at least the conditions are a constant. Before the match his high watermark was 33, but he belted the fast men down the ground and slow bowlers square in a performance to embarrass his batsmen. Muralitharan's brief cameo came to an end with a straight slow ball by Waqar to signal the end for the Lankans. The slower bowlers have often been difficult to attack on the slow St George's surfaces. In Jai-Alai you will hear people talk about live or dead balls and fast or slow balls. For years and years the Australian turf in good weather has been all against the rising fast ball and slow bowler's spin. It was awful up there, cold and damp, and the ground was too slow for my liking. Williams is slow off the ball because he's too worded about making a mistake. Indeed, slow neutrons often find their way into nuclei more efficiently than fast ones, much as a slow cricket ball is easier to catch. It was kind of a slow field and was getting a little bogged down at the end. Either table can be played with normal or slow balls, the latter intended to make the going easier for younger hands. Finally, Rosen hit a slow grounder toward Detroit third baseman Gerry Priddy and raced as hard as he could for first. Injuries often kept Larson off the field, and a slow bat hurt him when he did play. The batsmen just couldn't pick my slow looping balls, playing and missing regularly. She has shown aptitude on fast and slow ground, is trained by a very able handler who thinks plenty of her and possibly has plenty more to come. To me he is a natural sweeper, he reads the game well for a young player but at times he is too slow on the ball and a little languid. Maybe a slow surface would have tested his fitness, a lot better. He was a fast batter and she'd thrown a series of slow and fast balls. Pollock was also unfazed by the fact the Paarl pitch was likely to play slow, which would be to the Lankans' advantage. 2predicative or as complement (of a clock or watch) showing a time earlier than the correct time. the clock was five minutes slow Example sentencesExamples Does it make sense to make a moral judgement on a deceitful person but not on a slow clock? The two files were saved on different dates, he said, because the computer's internal clock was slow and ticked over to midnight in between. I was praying that the restaurant clock was slow and I wasn't a minute late. The gameplay speed and clock is extremely slow, but these settings can easily be customized. All the same results hold - to Alice, it appears that the clock is going slow! A slow clock and a bit of sun will metaphorically take the foot of the gas a bit. In the old days when bookmakers dominated betting, it was not unknown for slickers to fix a bookie's clock, making it slow. In the unlikely event that the chip-based clock is slow, the deviation will also be reflected in the departure time shown on the ticket. We are a little late, and I notice the clock is four minutes slow anyway. 3Not prompt to understand, think, or learn. he's so slow, so unimaginative Example sentencesExamples O-lan is plain looking, dull, and slow, but she is hard working, thrifty, and resourceful. The future is not bright for those who still use ox-carts - the ones who are slow or unwilling to absorb new expertise. I encourage those people who are a little weak and slow to learn, I try and work with them and drag them along. This could mean that in intellectual exercises the child may be ahead, but in learning to ride a bike, for instance, slow to learn such a skill. I was slow in learning the skills and my legs and back soon started to ache. Private tuitions are not allowed and slow learners are encouraged to come up instead of being condemned. He has been a slow learner but has learnt the finer points and has put them into practice for the benefit of the team. He was a little slow in understanding our request and we lamented in front of him that you couldn't get good hired help anymore. His name is Mathicumus, and he is rather slow in the head, you know. The boys get out to a lead with Scout again holding the girls back with her old body and mind just to damn slow for winning challenges. Our human minds are slow to understand the awful wickedness of idol worship. Jeremy was born with a twisted body, a slow mind and a chronic, terminal illness that had been slowly killing him for all his young life. Barrett was slow to learn the defense last season, but he's athletic, fearless and can play the ball. Though he has been slow to learn the position, the team plans to work him there more often. It seems likely that families with generally lower cognitive levels are going to be more likely to have kids who are slow to learn to read. In truth, the sort of skills he's trying to introduce are more easily learnt by youngsters - mature rugby players can be slow learners. He was essentially a reactive politician, a late learner, slow to grasp the consequences of change. Siobhan and her husband Eamonn, from Montenotte in Cork, realised something was wrong when their toddler was slow to learn to speak. You can't coming across as a smug and superior school marm correcting a slow child if you want to succeed. This is unfortunate because, as we have been slow to learn, the various sectors of health care are critically interdependent. He's a bit slow to learn and it took time for the penny to drop, then he started to finish even though he would have hated the ground. Synonyms obtuse, stupid, unperceptive, imperceptive, blind, uncomprehending, unimaginative, insensitive, bovine, stolid, slow-witted, dull-witted, unintelligent, doltish, witless, blockish informal dense, dim, dim-witted, thick, slow on the uptake, dumb, dopey, not with it, boneheaded, blockheaded, lamebrained, wooden-headed, muttonheaded British informal dozy Scottish &amp Northern English informal glaikit North American informal dumb-ass, chowderheaded South African informal dof 4Uneventful and rather dull. a slow and mostly aimless narrative Example sentencesExamples And soon breakfast and the beautiful fact that Thomas is slow, quiet and dull in the mornings. They are dull, slow, sober and fearful characters with a weak pulse and a cowardly, slothful disposition. Her right foot moved first, then her left, alternating in a rather boring and slow way. I recognise that this has been a rather slow and dull debate to this point. So I needed something that wasn't so slow, dull or trivial. Yeah, it has been a rather slow, boring kind of day, why do you ask? What looks like a slow, dull session even for August, it is, under the circumstances, a grand achievement. The flashbacks to the uncles' escapades in Africa ought to have been the saving grace of a rather uninteresting slow plot. It's been very slow and dull day, but it hasn't been boring. It is a long film at 132 minutes, but the story does not feel slow or dull at any point. On my first listen, I found the album dull and slow, but subsequent tries have brought out all the strange and lovely stuff going on. For a time, perhaps, she had broken away from a slow, uneventful life. In fact, since the plodding dreariness is usually broken by bouts of howling misery, the slow points come as rather a pleasant respite. Dull slow ballad type tracks that don't really go anywhere. I know several IT managers who are neither dull, slow nor reactive. He answered all the questions that were put to him in his slow and dull manner, using readymade and overcooked phrases. Amassing cash is a surefire - but incredibly slow and dull - way to make a million, assuming that your bank doesn't go bust. Our ride was slow and dull, conversationless, through land that seemed to look all the same. This game had all the ingredients of the banal and wonderful as it slipped from dull slow football to edge of the seat stuff. I found the film to be slow, dull, and ultimately unengaging. Synonyms dull, boring, uninteresting, unexciting, uneventful, tedious, tiresome, wearisome, dry, as dry as dust, monotonous, plodding, tame, dreary, lacklustre informal ho-hum quiet, sleepy, unprogressive, behind the times, backward, backwoods, backwater informal dead, one-horse, dead-and-alive North American informal dullsville 4.1 (of business) with little activity; slack. sales were slow Example sentencesExamples There are plenty of bars in the park but business is slow. Fitness vacations were still an anomaly, and business was slow at first. Reyes knew his life savings wouldn't last long - especially since business was slow in taking off. Even so, business was slow and the phone only rang a few times Monday. Since business is slow, the woman has time to be intrigued by the mystery. She said though business was slow for the past few years, it recently picked due to higher yields experienced in Zambia. Since it is the night shift and business is usually slow during those hours, you will be working alone. He works in the Continental Shoemakers' factory and sneaks away to write poetry when business is slow. After a long struggle to secure a location on campus, the farmers' market has been plagued with slow business and advertising woes. I asked if they were mad at me, and they said I drove people to and from the airport like a champ, but that business was slow. The managing owner told the investing owner that business was just slow, but the restaurant seemed as busy as ever. Bars and hotels that closed for lack of customers at the height of the outbreak also have begun to reopen, though many say business is still slow. Back in the private area, as we waited for a new song to begin, I asked if business was slow. For two months afterwards, business was very slow. Business was slow as all the kids were either in school or supposed to be. Business is slow, so she's practicing on Akiko's daughter, Natsuko. They drive a taxi to support their extended family, but business is slow, they said, with the Palestinian economy in tatters. I feel kind of hungover and toward the end of the year, business is slow. Suppose, for example, that you own a small job shop, and business is slow. The strain of the loss of income and the cost of having to set up housekeeping again was compounded by the fact that the portrait business was slow. Synonyms sluggish, slack, quiet, slow-moving, not busy, inactive, flat, depressed, stagnant, dead unproductive 5Photography (of a film) needing long exposure. Example sentencesExamples This in turn and the slow film, will require longer exposures - hence the tripod. One of the advantages of animation is that you can use long exposures and slow film stock to reduce grain and capture a lot of fine detail. I switched my flashguns off and held my camera steady for a slow shutter exposure. My film was too slow, and I didn't get any good pictures. 5.1 (of a lens) having a small aperture. Example sentencesExamples The original image was taken on ASA 50 and with a very small aperture to require a slow shutter speed. 6(of a fire or oven) burning or giving off heat gently. bake the dish in a preheated slow oven Example sentencesExamples Roast one sweet potato with the skin in a slow oven until the potato is soft. This is evaporated and coagulated by slow heating, often carried to the point at which the product is quite dry and crumbly. Lau, who has over 20 years of experience as a chef, said each soup is simmered on a slow fire for more than 10 hours. Back from the pub after a drink with Mr FM to the wonderful smell of stew cooking in the slow oven of the Aga. The cheek is cooked in a very slow oven all afternoon, then served on a risotto of carnaroli rice studded with the nuggets of baby cow. Add the flour, salt, chilli, and turmeric and fry on a slow fire till the flour is well roasted. Braise the pear on a slow fire until the crystal sugar melts. Roast chicken legs in a slow oven until the flesh falls off the bone when pressed. The seeds would then be sun dried or parched over a slow fire to crack open the hulls to then be threshed by trampling. After being boiled on slow fire for 24 hours, the soup was heavy and tasty, with nothing added but a secret combination of herbs. The ingredients were placed in a large cauldron and cooked over a slow fire for a whole afternoon until it turned into a pot of delicious soup. Boil milk and fry vermicelli in remaining clarified butter gently on slow heat till golden brown. Whisk this sharply over a very slow fire, until it assumes the appearance of a light frothy custard. Add the other two ingredients and boil on a slow fire until soft. Rice, meat, and vegetables are placed in huge containers covered with hot charcoals and heated by slow fire underneath. Place the tikkis on the tava and cook on a slow fire, sprinkling oil/ghee at intervals. Add rice, fry well, add salt and water, cover and cook on a slow flame, till the water is absorbed. Put all the above ingredients in a large utensil and stir on slow fire for two to three hours. Allow to simmer on a slow fire till the mixture begins to leave the sides of the pan. The pomelo pit can be pounded into small pieces, and then boiled on a slow fire to extract the medicinal essence. adverb sləʊsloʊ At a slow pace; slowly. the train went slower and slower in combination a slow-moving river Example sentencesExamples Palmer, meanwhile, is moving slow and cautiously through the city looking for a safe location where he can hide. James was bringing the ball down, slow paced as he waited for his teammates to set up. The day starts slow paced and builds momentum steadily. Mexico said that the great delays that had arisen in this matter were the result of the slow-paced justice in the courts. I began firing into them, and they seemed to be moving so slow and then the rest of the company joined me. When he didn't get sex, he always seemed to move slow and disappointedly. Chris moved over to Jimmy slow and cat-like, grabbing him by the chin and studying him for a moment. A waitress covers their white tablecloth with steaming chops and chicken, then moves off in a slow two-cycle walk for the rest of us. Traffic was slow-paced with incidences of minor accidents. She hadn't dated much, so we were moving really slow compared to what I was used to. Rick looked up at the ship, it was moving too slow and too late, it might get off some shots but not enough to stop them or to get the breach out of the way. Starting slow and slowly speeding up, T.'s freestyle was almost splash-less. Move in slow with your face towards hers and slightly tilt your head so you don't bump noses. verb sləʊsloʊ [no object] 1Reduce one's speed or the speed of a vehicle or process. the train slowed to a halt investment has slowed down with object he slowed the car Example sentencesExamples The auto slowed, the driver checked his watch and a car full of men came from an empty side street as if on cue. The police car then slows to a halt, forcing the errant vehicle to slow with it. The bus slows to a crawl, attempting to negotiate narrow streets, taxis and endless traffic lights. The car's slowing and I gulp in horror as it stops, right beside the bush I'm hidden behind. I knocked it out and jumped out as the vehicle was slowing in traffic. The car slows to a stop in front of the house and the engine falls silent. All I saw in the accident was a lot of mess and cars slowing everywhere. Marianne remembers the train slowing and the cattle doors being slung open. His motorbike is believed to have collided with the rear of two cars that had slowed so a third could turn into a farm. Cars slowing and turning into the nursery's car park would slow traffic on Leeds Road Lights turn to red, and my taxi slows to a halt in a quiet Notting Hill street. As the car slowed outside the hotel, mum pointed it out to dad, saying that we had stayed there the last time. Just in time, I release the rope, the sail flows out and the boat slows. One of the minders gives a warning shout, and moments later, a police cruiser slows to a halt at the compound gate. The last surveillance car was calling out the last few moves, the target car was slowing, it stopped. At that, the train slows to a stop, and then starts moving in reverse. If anyone cuts in front of you, the car slows to the pre-set safe distance then speeds up again once the vehicle moves out of the way. He stirs himself as the train slows, ready to catch up with her. She declined, pulled up the door lock on her side and, as the car slowed, scrambled out. Then as it came close, the car slowed and, on overtaking me, pulled gently to a halt. Synonyms reduce speed, go slower, decelerate, lessen one's speed, brake, put the brakes on, slack off 1.1slow down/up Live or work less actively or intensely. I wasn't feeling well and had to slow down Example sentencesExamples It slows down the good employers and ignores the bad he says. While the rest of Bulgaria slows down, they may be able to catch up some ground. At night, as the user sleeps, the pulse can slow down to such a point that their heart just stops working. They start a chemical reaction in your brain - they tell you to slow down and relax. Matt told her as he slowed down to rest a little, he was out of shape. And lot of people are sort of afraid to put more money on the table which slows down growth. Jo told me it is important to keep active to slow down the progression of my condition. Traditionally the internet slows down to a trickle, since everybody who is not on the street is likely to be online. This process currently slows down and limits the amount of data that can be transmitted along fibre-optic networks. Don't ask for opinions from the participants - it slows up the process. Synonyms take it easy, relax, ease up/off, take a break, take some time off, slack off informal let up North American informal chill out, hang loose, kick back Usage The word slow is normally used as an adjective (a slow learner; the journey was slow). It is also used as an adverb in certain specific contexts, including compounds such as slow-acting and slow-moving and in the expression go slow. Other adverbial use is informal and usually regarded as non-standard, as for example in he drives too slow and go as slow as you can. In such contexts standard English uses slowly instead. The use of slow and slowly in this respect contrasts with the use of fast, which is completely standard in use as both an adjective and an adverb; there is no word ‘fastly’ Phrases slow but (or and) sure Not quick but achieving the required result eventually. I am making good progress—slow but sure Example sentencesExamples Trying to keep the bike as still as possible, he kicked off and despite Isabel's woozy protestations, they made it to her dorm with slow but sure progress. Brian took the animal home and the recovery has been slow but sure. So now - we'll get there slow but sure. He was slow but sure, and he always got there in the end. Improvement had been slow but sure, although she was still vomiting and having bad nightmares regularly. I chose a stately breaststroke, slow but sure, that meant I could keep an eye on our target. This drug started to run its course slow but sure. People, slow but sure, are becoming more and more tolerable of different faiths, cultures, and races. Hearing nothing they continued on, their steps slow and sure, not making a sound. It's a project that's been in the works for 2 years, going slow but sure. Derivatives slowish adjective I can see enough to cycle at a slowish pace, but when I'm cycling with the bunch now I cycle with people who do know that I have limited vision and they can watch out for me a bit. Example sentencesExamples Toscanini's sense of theater allows them to remain gripping, even at slowish tempos, and the NBC Symphony Orchestra plays them with superhuman concentration. I wonder if this is it, the slowish descent to my demise. Despite his slowish running, his bike speed was good enough to propel him into fourth place in the 45-49 age group. He didn't like the slowish early pace of the race and didn't take kindly to Fallon holding him up. Origin Old English slāw 'slow-witted, sluggish', of Germanic origin. Rhymes aglow, ago, alow, although, apropos, art nouveau, Bamako, Bardot, beau, Beaujolais Nouveau, below, bestow, blow, bo, Boileau, bons mots, Bordeaux, Bow, bravo, bro, cachepot, cheerio, Coe, crow, Defoe, de trop, doe, doh, dos-à-dos, do-si-do, dough, dzo, Flo, floe, flow, foe, foreknow, foreshow, forgo, Foucault, froe, glow, go, good-oh, go-slow, grow, gung-ho, Heathrow, heave-ho, heigh-ho, hello, ho, hoe, ho-ho, jo, Joe, kayo, know, lo, low, maillot, malapropos, Marceau, mho, Miró, mo, Mohs, Monroe, mot, mow, Munro, no, Noh, no-show, oh, oho, outgo, outgrow, owe, Perrault, pho, po, Poe, pro, quid pro quo, reshow, righto, roe, Rouault, row, Rowe, sew, shew, show, sloe, snow, so, soh, sow, status quo, stow, Stowe, strow, tally-ho, though, throw, tic-tac-toe, to-and-fro, toe, touch-and-go, tow, trow, undergo, undersow, voe, whacko, whoa, wo, woe, Xuzhou, yo, yo-ho-ho, Zhengzhou, Zhou adj.1 phr. Definition of slow in US English: slow adjectiveslōsloʊ 1Moving or operating, or designed to do so, only at a low speed; not quick or fast. a time when diesel cars were slow and noisy a slow dot-matrix printer Example sentencesExamples To sum up, to show action and movement, select a slow shutter speed and stand side on to the action. On the slow speed circuits it's proved that it's fast at Imola and I think here it's proved that it's quick and reliable on a high-speed circuit. That United weren't streets ahead by half-time was down to their slow, slow, quick, quick, slow approach in the opening period. The days are just moving so fast and slow at the same time, it's difficult to keep track. The alternatives are various forms of death - quick, slow, agonising, or imperceptible. A lorry driver, stopped because of his slow speed, was found to be more than two-and-a-half times the legal alcohol limit, a court heard. No more waiting for slow websites with internet speeds up to 10 times faster than a normal 56k service. It was especially difficult because of the slow speed at which the criminal justice system operated. The speeds are quite slow, but fast enough for a little surfing and emails that aren't way too big. The term passing lanes implies that the road is divided into slow and fast moving traffic lanes. So it seems to me that the alert system was a little slow in operating. Well, because of its speed, which was slow, and its size, which was huge, Frances was and is a colossal rain maker. Movements are large and appear relatively slow in the techniques designed for armored combat. And if the heart rate gets too slow, it will speed it up like a pacemaker. Motorbikes in the summer are the worst for speed and caravans create long lines of very slow moving traffic. My speed was so slow that bicycles were actually overtaking me. In our tests, this printer was slow, noisy and yielded the least impressive results, even with the subtle photo cartridge in place. He tends to swell held notes in both slow and fast movements, perhaps a nod to authentic performance. The end repeats the design so far - slow followed by fast - in more concentrated form. It made short quick movements then proceeded at a 90 degrees from the original movement at a slow speed. Synonyms unhurried, leisurely, measured, moderate, deliberate, steady, sedate, slow-moving, slow-going, easy, relaxed, unrushed, gentle, undemanding, comfortable 1.1 Taking a long time to perform a specified action. she was a slow reader with infinitive large organizations can be slow to change Example sentencesExamples The story of the Prudential has stopped being one of irritating slow performance and become something much more important. I'll also just mention that I am a very slow reader. The autonomic function tests were performed as in the slow breathing group and the values were recorded before and after the study. David gave a first class performance in slow airs, jigs and hornpipes. On the initial attempts, it is helpful for the swimmer to perform long, slow strokes and a long side kick while getting a breath. This was important for his original readers in a country slow to catch musical tastes from elsewhere. Users can continue to use the web-based file upload utility gratis, but this can be slow, reader Helen Cain points out. While performing it appears slow and gentle but every bit as accomplished as it higher powered and more modern cousins. For full effect and for safety, flyes must be performed in a slow and controlled manner. Performance is somewhat slow, but this is not unusual for filters doing complex calculations. The dancers form a circle or a long line, holding their clasped hands high in the air to perform this slow, graceful dance. Only minutes before office workers performed boozy slow dances around this suburban pub to chart hits. This eliminates the multiple acknowledgments that create congestion and slow performance. However, it doesn't seem to be slow as a CD-ROM reader, so most users might not notice. The national press has become a shadow of its former self, a heavy beast too heavy to move, too slow to maintain the reader's attention. Saying this, James loosed a volley from all of his guns while performing a slow barrel roll. The hard disk is nearly full, the desktop has about 100 items on it, performance is achingly slow. The parallel port interface of our media card reader was too slow. The long, slow repetition of simple, but heavily detuned chords mimics, in a way, the chanting of monks. Still, transactions were delayed, data was missing and system performance was slow. 1.2 Lasting or taking a long time. a slow process the journey home was slow Example sentencesExamples Actually, there is, but it's a slow, long process, which needs a great deal of will and a huge amount of effort from pivotal people in both groups. Most of our boxes are unpacked now but there's chaos everywhere and it's a slow process of getting everything sorted out. He has called for the council and police to work together and make travellers move on immediately from council land, as the current legal process is too slow. Goux apologised to the 180 candidate jurors for the slow selection process. As you can imagine, it was a lot of waiting and a lot of anxious moments, but it was a very slow and deliberate process. It is a very slow process, promising a little progress at a time. Snail mating is a slow, languorous process, but it also involves some heavy weaponry. So I fired up the computer, pulled the blind against the fading sky, and settled down to a slow, steady effort. Scientists hope patients will adapt, though the learning process might be slow, like a child beginning to recognise shapes and colours. It's a slow process but it's time well spent to educate others and provide tools on how to live gently and harmoniously on our planet. For Mukherjee, the journey to becoming an American was a slow process. The grieving process is typically slow, gradually winding along until it eventually lessens. The evolution of humankind is a slow and tortuous process. ‘Everything is progressing well but it is a slow process,’ he explained. Well I don't know what sort of speedy trial law they have in Texas, but the legal process is inevitably slow. This has been a slow process is was initiated several years ago and has raised doubts about the commerciality of the project. I don't remember it happening all at once - it must have been a slow process, like ice breaking away from a glacier. Though it was reported that attracting foreign investment has accelerated since 1997, the process is still slow. A number of experimenters and sanitation facilities have been extracting gas from sewage for years now, but it's diluted so much that the process is slow. It takes a long, slow process to build a brand name. But the push by environmentalists to ban the trade is a slow process. The process of deterioration is slow, but steady - the kind of food that is consumed being the culprit. But this is a slow process and it could be a matter of months before we have any results. Currently, the process is slow, expensive and done manually. To create a show of this nature is a slow and steady process of workshopping and experiment. It's a slow process, rivaled only by the time it takes to evict someone from their apartment in New York. Much of the main building was covered by one of the collapsed walls, making a comprehensive search of the site a painstakingly slow process. Elizabeth has nothing but praise for the service, but she pointed out that it was a slow and steady process, as she had to learn to cope with her fear. Detainees live absent any points of reference, the whole process is very slow, and that detainees have the feeling that they are living in limbo. Doctors kept them in an artificial coma as their bodies began the slow process of repairing the damage caused while they were both clinically dead. Technically South and North Korea are still at war, but Kim Dae Jung's achievement has been a slow process of reconciliation. Changing behavior, as we are well aware, is a very slow process. Yet the slow process of reconstruction, following the ravages of a diamond-fuelled civil war, continues. Well, there's a very slow and cautious process of reform in Damascus. But Mr Jeffs called the sifting through of so much information ‘a long, slow process’. Synonyms long-drawn-out, time-consuming, lengthy, long-lasting, protracted, prolonged, interminable 1.3attributive Not allowing or intended for fast travel. the slow lane Example sentencesExamples The fast-lane campaign works on a similar principle to fast and slow lanes in swimming pools. Not only was travel difficult and slow in the eleventh century, he was also still Duke of Normandy and he had to return to Normandy to maintain his control of this land in France. They overcame grinding poverty, tremendous distances on slow transportation with no travel budgets. Traffic is travelling at a slow rate with back ups developing that are unnecessary. It was far away and traveling very slow (seven miles per hour); no need to worry now. A second visit to Venice took place in the midst of the Thirty Years' War, when travel was slow and hazardous. However, with all of the traffic headed north and none going south, travel remains slow. It was slow travel, through wet heavy snow along the bank of a small stream, but within less than a mile we came to a kill. Travel on it was slow but cheap, and heavy loads could be easily shifted. It was clear that the majority of drivers felt that this signage was either redundant or in error and few were driving at 50 mph, even in the slow lane. I was in the slow lane and sensed where the shoulder should be, so I eased the car off the roadway and let it scrape the railing to be sure we were in a safe spot. Had I, in some inexplicable way, left my own town earlier than I intended, and really travelled in a slow train? There are no other cars on the road and the truck drivers just chill in their slow lane and leave the fast one all to you. The first half of the Twentieth Century was a time of tremendous change; the last half was a time of fast food and slow travel. Warren said that to flee the murder scene he drove a blue van from the fast lane on the Naas Road across a slow lane and into a slip road leading to the Boot Road. Any additional torque provided the same slow seat post travel into the seat tube. Police say they are stumped as to why a man decided to walk into the slow lane of a motorway - and was then knocked down and killed in a collision with a car. And if you are in the slow lane and too fast then again that is your own fault and you should move up a lane, dependent on how crowded other lanes are. The convoy had many days left of this slow travel ahead of it. The cool water and slow pace of travel will make it much more pleasant. The other, who I know of old, remained in the slow lane. 1.4 (of a playing field) likely to make the ball bounce or run slowly or to prevent competitors from traveling fast. Example sentencesExamples Injuries often kept Larson off the field, and a slow bat hurt him when he did play. At the Combine, the surface is slow, but at least the conditions are a constant. Muralitharan's brief cameo came to an end with a straight slow ball by Waqar to signal the end for the Lankans. Before the match his high watermark was 33, but he belted the fast men down the ground and slow bowlers square in a performance to embarrass his batsmen. Pollock was also unfazed by the fact the Paarl pitch was likely to play slow, which would be to the Lankans' advantage. Also, I fielded a slow roller and tripped over the mound and fell flat on my face. He was a fast batter and she'd thrown a series of slow and fast balls. Either table can be played with normal or slow balls, the latter intended to make the going easier for younger hands. To me he is a natural sweeper, he reads the game well for a young player but at times he is too slow on the ball and a little languid. Williams is slow off the ball because he's too worded about making a mistake. She has shown aptitude on fast and slow ground, is trained by a very able handler who thinks plenty of her and possibly has plenty more to come. In Jai-Alai you will hear people talk about live or dead balls and fast or slow balls. For years and years the Australian turf in good weather has been all against the rising fast ball and slow bowler's spin. It was awful up there, cold and damp, and the ground was too slow for my liking. Maybe a slow surface would have tested his fitness, a lot better. Indeed, slow neutrons often find their way into nuclei more efficiently than fast ones, much as a slow cricket ball is easier to catch. It was kind of a slow field and was getting a little bogged down at the end. The slower bowlers have often been difficult to attack on the slow St George's surfaces. The batsmen just couldn't pick my slow looping balls, playing and missing regularly. Finally, Rosen hit a slow grounder toward Detroit third baseman Gerry Priddy and raced as hard as he could for first. 2predicative or as complement (of a clock or watch) showing a time earlier than the correct time. the clock was five minutes slow Example sentencesExamples Does it make sense to make a moral judgement on a deceitful person but not on a slow clock? I was praying that the restaurant clock was slow and I wasn't a minute late. We are a little late, and I notice the clock is four minutes slow anyway. In the unlikely event that the chip-based clock is slow, the deviation will also be reflected in the departure time shown on the ticket. The gameplay speed and clock is extremely slow, but these settings can easily be customized. In the old days when bookmakers dominated betting, it was not unknown for slickers to fix a bookie's clock, making it slow. A slow clock and a bit of sun will metaphorically take the foot of the gas a bit. The two files were saved on different dates, he said, because the computer's internal clock was slow and ticked over to midnight in between. All the same results hold - to Alice, it appears that the clock is going slow! 3Not prompt to understand, think, or learn. he's so slow, so unimaginative Example sentencesExamples I was slow in learning the skills and my legs and back soon started to ache. I encourage those people who are a little weak and slow to learn, I try and work with them and drag them along. He was a little slow in understanding our request and we lamented in front of him that you couldn't get good hired help anymore. This could mean that in intellectual exercises the child may be ahead, but in learning to ride a bike, for instance, slow to learn such a skill. His name is Mathicumus, and he is rather slow in the head, you know. Private tuitions are not allowed and slow learners are encouraged to come up instead of being condemned. The future is not bright for those who still use ox-carts - the ones who are slow or unwilling to absorb new expertise. He has been a slow learner but has learnt the finer points and has put them into practice for the benefit of the team. Our human minds are slow to understand the awful wickedness of idol worship. Barrett was slow to learn the defense last season, but he's athletic, fearless and can play the ball. He's a bit slow to learn and it took time for the penny to drop, then he started to finish even though he would have hated the ground. The boys get out to a lead with Scout again holding the girls back with her old body and mind just to damn slow for winning challenges. He was essentially a reactive politician, a late learner, slow to grasp the consequences of change. You can't coming across as a smug and superior school marm correcting a slow child if you want to succeed. Jeremy was born with a twisted body, a slow mind and a chronic, terminal illness that had been slowly killing him for all his young life. This is unfortunate because, as we have been slow to learn, the various sectors of health care are critically interdependent. It seems likely that families with generally lower cognitive levels are going to be more likely to have kids who are slow to learn to read. O-lan is plain looking, dull, and slow, but she is hard working, thrifty, and resourceful. In truth, the sort of skills he's trying to introduce are more easily learnt by youngsters - mature rugby players can be slow learners. Though he has been slow to learn the position, the team plans to work him there more often. Siobhan and her husband Eamonn, from Montenotte in Cork, realised something was wrong when their toddler was slow to learn to speak. Synonyms obtuse, stupid, unperceptive, imperceptive, blind, uncomprehending, unimaginative, insensitive, bovine, stolid, slow-witted, dull-witted, unintelligent, doltish, witless, blockish 4Uneventful and rather dull. a slow and mostly aimless narrative Example sentencesExamples Amassing cash is a surefire - but incredibly slow and dull - way to make a million, assuming that your bank doesn't go bust. Dull slow ballad type tracks that don't really go anywhere. For a time, perhaps, she had broken away from a slow, uneventful life. Our ride was slow and dull, conversationless, through land that seemed to look all the same. What looks like a slow, dull session even for August, it is, under the circumstances, a grand achievement. So I needed something that wasn't so slow, dull or trivial. I found the film to be slow, dull, and ultimately unengaging. It is a long film at 132 minutes, but the story does not feel slow or dull at any point. The flashbacks to the uncles' escapades in Africa ought to have been the saving grace of a rather uninteresting slow plot. This game had all the ingredients of the banal and wonderful as it slipped from dull slow football to edge of the seat stuff. It's been very slow and dull day, but it hasn't been boring. And soon breakfast and the beautiful fact that Thomas is slow, quiet and dull in the mornings. In fact, since the plodding dreariness is usually broken by bouts of howling misery, the slow points come as rather a pleasant respite. I recognise that this has been a rather slow and dull debate to this point. Yeah, it has been a rather slow, boring kind of day, why do you ask? On my first listen, I found the album dull and slow, but subsequent tries have brought out all the strange and lovely stuff going on. Her right foot moved first, then her left, alternating in a rather boring and slow way. They are dull, slow, sober and fearful characters with a weak pulse and a cowardly, slothful disposition. I know several IT managers who are neither dull, slow nor reactive. He answered all the questions that were put to him in his slow and dull manner, using readymade and overcooked phrases. Synonyms dull, boring, uninteresting, unexciting, uneventful, tedious, tiresome, wearisome, dry, as dry as dust, monotonous, plodding, tame, dreary, lacklustre quiet, sleepy, unprogressive, behind the times, backward, backwoods, backwater 4.1 (of business) with little activity; slack. sales were slow Example sentencesExamples He works in the Continental Shoemakers' factory and sneaks away to write poetry when business is slow. For two months afterwards, business was very slow. Suppose, for example, that you own a small job shop, and business is slow. Business was slow as all the kids were either in school or supposed to be. Back in the private area, as we waited for a new song to begin, I asked if business was slow. Fitness vacations were still an anomaly, and business was slow at first. Since business is slow, the woman has time to be intrigued by the mystery. The strain of the loss of income and the cost of having to set up housekeeping again was compounded by the fact that the portrait business was slow. Business is slow, so she's practicing on Akiko's daughter, Natsuko. I asked if they were mad at me, and they said I drove people to and from the airport like a champ, but that business was slow. Since it is the night shift and business is usually slow during those hours, you will be working alone. Bars and hotels that closed for lack of customers at the height of the outbreak also have begun to reopen, though many say business is still slow. There are plenty of bars in the park but business is slow. Reyes knew his life savings wouldn't last long - especially since business was slow in taking off. Even so, business was slow and the phone only rang a few times Monday. I feel kind of hungover and toward the end of the year, business is slow. They drive a taxi to support their extended family, but business is slow, they said, with the Palestinian economy in tatters. She said though business was slow for the past few years, it recently picked due to higher yields experienced in Zambia. The managing owner told the investing owner that business was just slow, but the restaurant seemed as busy as ever. After a long struggle to secure a location on campus, the farmers' market has been plagued with slow business and advertising woes. Synonyms sluggish, slack, quiet, slow-moving, not busy, inactive, flat, depressed, stagnant, dead 5Photography (of a film) needing long exposure. Example sentencesExamples I switched my flashguns off and held my camera steady for a slow shutter exposure. One of the advantages of animation is that you can use long exposures and slow film stock to reduce grain and capture a lot of fine detail. This in turn and the slow film, will require longer exposures - hence the tripod. My film was too slow, and I didn't get any good pictures. 5.1 (of a lens) having a small aperture. Example sentencesExamples The original image was taken on ASA 50 and with a very small aperture to require a slow shutter speed. 6(of a fire or oven) burning or giving off heat gently. bake the dish in a preheated slow oven Example sentencesExamples Add rice, fry well, add salt and water, cover and cook on a slow flame, till the water is absorbed. Roast one sweet potato with the skin in a slow oven until the potato is soft. Back from the pub after a drink with Mr FM to the wonderful smell of stew cooking in the slow oven of the Aga. Place the tikkis on the tava and cook on a slow fire, sprinkling oil/ghee at intervals. Whisk this sharply over a very slow fire, until it assumes the appearance of a light frothy custard. After being boiled on slow fire for 24 hours, the soup was heavy and tasty, with nothing added but a secret combination of herbs. Boil milk and fry vermicelli in remaining clarified butter gently on slow heat till golden brown. Roast chicken legs in a slow oven until the flesh falls off the bone when pressed. Add the other two ingredients and boil on a slow fire until soft. The pomelo pit can be pounded into small pieces, and then boiled on a slow fire to extract the medicinal essence. Allow to simmer on a slow fire till the mixture begins to leave the sides of the pan. The ingredients were placed in a large cauldron and cooked over a slow fire for a whole afternoon until it turned into a pot of delicious soup. This is evaporated and coagulated by slow heating, often carried to the point at which the product is quite dry and crumbly. The cheek is cooked in a very slow oven all afternoon, then served on a risotto of carnaroli rice studded with the nuggets of baby cow. Lau, who has over 20 years of experience as a chef, said each soup is simmered on a slow fire for more than 10 hours. Add the flour, salt, chilli, and turmeric and fry on a slow fire till the flour is well roasted. Put all the above ingredients in a large utensil and stir on slow fire for two to three hours. Braise the pear on a slow fire until the crystal sugar melts. The seeds would then be sun dried or parched over a slow fire to crack open the hulls to then be threshed by trampling. Rice, meat, and vegetables are placed in huge containers covered with hot charcoals and heated by slow fire underneath. adverbslōsloʊ At a slow pace; slowly. the train went slower and slower in combination a slow-moving river Example sentencesExamples Palmer, meanwhile, is moving slow and cautiously through the city looking for a safe location where he can hide. A waitress covers their white tablecloth with steaming chops and chicken, then moves off in a slow two-cycle walk for the rest of us. She hadn't dated much, so we were moving really slow compared to what I was used to. Rick looked up at the ship, it was moving too slow and too late, it might get off some shots but not enough to stop them or to get the breach out of the way. I began firing into them, and they seemed to be moving so slow and then the rest of the company joined me. Traffic was slow-paced with incidences of minor accidents. When he didn't get sex, he always seemed to move slow and disappointedly. Chris moved over to Jimmy slow and cat-like, grabbing him by the chin and studying him for a moment. The day starts slow paced and builds momentum steadily. James was bringing the ball down, slow paced as he waited for his teammates to set up. Starting slow and slowly speeding up, T.'s freestyle was almost splash-less. Mexico said that the great delays that had arisen in this matter were the result of the slow-paced justice in the courts. Move in slow with your face towards hers and slightly tilt your head so you don't bump noses. verbslōsloʊ [no object] 1Reduce one's speed or the speed of a vehicle or process. the train slowed to a halt investment has slowed down with object he slowed the car Example sentencesExamples If anyone cuts in front of you, the car slows to the pre-set safe distance then speeds up again once the vehicle moves out of the way. The car slows to a stop in front of the house and the engine falls silent. The car's slowing and I gulp in horror as it stops, right beside the bush I'm hidden behind. All I saw in the accident was a lot of mess and cars slowing everywhere. He stirs himself as the train slows, ready to catch up with her. The auto slowed, the driver checked his watch and a car full of men came from an empty side street as if on cue. The police car then slows to a halt, forcing the errant vehicle to slow with it. I knocked it out and jumped out as the vehicle was slowing in traffic. Just in time, I release the rope, the sail flows out and the boat slows. One of the minders gives a warning shout, and moments later, a police cruiser slows to a halt at the compound gate. His motorbike is believed to have collided with the rear of two cars that had slowed so a third could turn into a farm. The last surveillance car was calling out the last few moves, the target car was slowing, it stopped. At that, the train slows to a stop, and then starts moving in reverse. She declined, pulled up the door lock on her side and, as the car slowed, scrambled out. As the car slowed outside the hotel, mum pointed it out to dad, saying that we had stayed there the last time. Marianne remembers the train slowing and the cattle doors being slung open. Cars slowing and turning into the nursery's car park would slow traffic on Leeds Road Lights turn to red, and my taxi slows to a halt in a quiet Notting Hill street. Then as it came close, the car slowed and, on overtaking me, pulled gently to a halt. The bus slows to a crawl, attempting to negotiate narrow streets, taxis and endless traffic lights. Synonyms reduce speed, go slower, decelerate, lessen one's speed, brake, put the brakes on, slack off 1.1slow down/up Live or work less actively or intensely. I wasn't feeling well and had to slow down Example sentencesExamples They start a chemical reaction in your brain - they tell you to slow down and relax. And lot of people are sort of afraid to put more money on the table which slows down growth. Traditionally the internet slows down to a trickle, since everybody who is not on the street is likely to be online. This process currently slows down and limits the amount of data that can be transmitted along fibre-optic networks. It slows down the good employers and ignores the bad he says. Jo told me it is important to keep active to slow down the progression of my condition. Matt told her as he slowed down to rest a little, he was out of shape. Don't ask for opinions from the participants - it slows up the process. While the rest of Bulgaria slows down, they may be able to catch up some ground. At night, as the user sleeps, the pulse can slow down to such a point that their heart just stops working. Synonyms take it easy, relax, ease off, ease up, take a break, take some time off, slack off Usage The word slow is normally used as an adjective (a slow learner; the journey was slow). It is also used as an adverb in certain specific contexts, including compounds such as slow-acting and slow-moving and in the expression go slow. Other adverbial use is informal and usually regarded as nonstandard, as in he drives too slow and go as slow as you can. In such contexts, standard English uses slowly instead. The use of slow and slowly in this respect contrasts with the use of fast, which is completely standard in use as both an adjective and an adverb; there is no word 'fastly' Phrases slow but (or and) sure Not quick but achieving the required result eventually. a slow but sure increase in the price of gold Example sentencesExamples I chose a stately breaststroke, slow but sure, that meant I could keep an eye on our target. This drug started to run its course slow but sure. Brian took the animal home and the recovery has been slow but sure. Hearing nothing they continued on, their steps slow and sure, not making a sound. He was slow but sure, and he always got there in the end. People, slow but sure, are becoming more and more tolerable of different faiths, cultures, and races. Improvement had been slow but sure, although she was still vomiting and having bad nightmares regularly. Trying to keep the bike as still as possible, he kicked off and despite Isabel's woozy protestations, they made it to her dorm with slow but sure progress. So now - we'll get there slow but sure. It's a project that's been in the works for 2 years, going slow but sure. Origin Old English slāw ‘slow-witted, sluggish’, of Germanic origin. adj.1 phr.
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