Matter, being impotent, sluggish, and inactive, hath no power to
stir or move itself.
Woodward.
And the sluggish land slumbers in utter neglect.
Longfellow.
4. Characteristic of a sluggard; dull; stupid; tame; simple. [R.] "So
sluggish a conceit." Milton.
Syn. -- Inert; idle; lazy; slothful; indolent; dronish; slow; dull;
drowsy; inactive. See Inert.
-- Slug"gish*ly, adv. -- Slug"gish*ness, n.
Slug"gy (?), a. Sluggish. [Obs.] Chaucer.
Slug"-horn` (?), a. An erroneous form of the Scotch word slughorne, or
sloggorne, meaning slogan.
Slugs (?), n. pl. (Mining) Half-roasted ore.
Slug"worm` (?), n. (Zoöl.) Any caterpillar which has the general
appearance of a slug, as do those of certain moths belonging to
Limacodes and allied genera, and those of certain sawflies.
Sluice (?), n. [OF. escluse, F. écluse, LL. exclusa, sclusa, from L.
excludere, exclusum, to shut out: cf. D. sluis sluice, from the Old
French. See Exclude.] 1. An artifical passage for water, fitted with a
valve or gate, as in a mill stream, for stopping or regulating the
flow; also, a water gate or flood gate.
2. Hence, an opening or channel through which anything flows; a source
of supply.
Each sluice of affluent fortune opened soon.
Harte.
This home familiarity . . . opens the sluices of sensibility.