slow, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

slow adj.

1. unfashionable.

1827		Sporting Mag. XXI. 29: Long courtships are stupid things, and voted slow.
1842		C.J. Apperley Life Sportsman 38: John Hawkes and myself always ride in leathers, though people say ‘it looks slow’. I suppose Pritchard thinks corduroys less trouble.

2. sexually timid.

1847		A. Smith Natural History of Ballet Girl 46: The loungers [...] begin their flirtations with the Coryphées. If you listen you will be astonished to find how feeble is the dialogue [...] But it appears to make them — the loungers — perfectly happy, ‘slow’ as it is .
1859		E. Eden Semi-Detached House (1979) 150: Some of the guests, who were what she would have called ‘slow,’ found themselves affected with alarming fits of dejection, accompanied by a distressing tingling in the ears and very burning cheeks.
1907		R. Service ‘The Woman and the Angel’ in Songs of a Sourdough 71: The women simply adored him, his lips were like Cupid’s bow; / But he never ventured to use them – and so they voted him slow.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 7 Feb. 7/1: Trixie W. is far too slow for Ned R. Buck up, Trix .
1917		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 28 July [synd. col.] My best girl’s a corker, not the kind that’s slow.
1924		P. Marks Plastic Age 13: She did wish that he was n’t so slow. Why, he had kissed her only once, and that had been a silly peck on the cheek.
1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 75: Fancy staying up as late as this and not having no crumpet. You must be a bit slow.

3. of people, dull, lifeless, insipid.

1848		Paul Pry 11 Dec. n.p.: The ‘slow’ and unconscious traveller would pass by it, thinking to himself, that, as the doors are not open, there is a case of bankruptcy here; but the ‘fast’ man knows better.
1850		Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 6 Apr. n.p.: He smacks his lips and rubs his hands, / And cries — ‘That’s not so slow’.
1852		G.C. Mundy Our Antipodes I 282: He prefers [...] the company of gamblers, adventurers, and horse-dealers, to [...] what he would probably call the ‘slower’ classes.
1861		Hills & Plains I 34: [of a regiment] ‘The slowest lot I ever met’.
1872		J.D. McCabe Lights & Shadows 388: They are ‘slow’ people, dull of comprehension, and to them the mysteries of their neighborhood are a sealed book.
1896		W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 22: slow a. Dull-witted, uninteresting.
1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 265: They were the Bunch, wise, beautiful and amusing; they were Boheminans and urbanites [...] and in cynical superiority to people who were ‘slow’ or ‘tightwad’ they cackled.
1938		J. Curtis They Drive by Night 45: If he couldn’t get a lift here, he was a bit slow and that was all there was to it.

4. of places, events, dull, boring.

1855		Thackeray Newcomes II 109: My uncle [...] found the party was what you young fellows call very slow.
1873		Siliad 97: Where shall we go? The Judge and Jury? No, that’s awful slow.
1883		E.J. Milliken Childe Chappie’s Pilgrimage 6: For cynic scorn congealed all fantasy / And quick affection of fresh youth, and he / Regarded these as tame and ‘awfully slow’.
c.1896		Tom Clare [perf. ] ‘Absolutely Wrong’ 🎵 What fun is life to them?It must be awf’lly slow, / They don’t get much amusement, that's quite clear.
1906		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Gift of the Magi’ in Four Million (1915) 33: ‘Afghanistan?’ the natives said to him through an interpreter. ‘Well, not so slow, do you think?’.
1907		Harrington & Tate [perf. Marie Lloyd] ‘Customs of the Country’ 🎵 You've been to gay Paree? / What say? You think so? Oui? / Well, the customs of that country are not slow.
1909		Van Loan ‘The Bush League Demon’ in Big League (2004) 42: Professional baseball wasn’t such a slow game after all.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 179: This was less entertaining than Ye Cracke on a slow night.

5. (US black) unsophisticated, lacking in knowledge.

1969

‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 98: I knew I was slow. I sure didn’t intend to stay slow.

SE in slang uses

In derivatives

slowie (n.)

a slow dance or song.

1988		R. Doyle Commitments 164: They could sing a few slowies. For the oul’ ones.
1998		K. Sampson Awaydays 93: I find Divine, gassed on Red Witches, and coax her into a slowie.

In compounds

slow-ass (adj.) [SE slow + sfx slough v. + -ass sfx]

(US black) slow.

1998		Twista & The Speedknot Mobstaz ‘In Your World’ 🎵 Here she comes with them big legs, no fat on the back / What’s up shorty, can we kick it tonight and choke on the sack / Come see as I foreplay, freaky at this slow-ass track.
2008		Morn. Call (Allentown, PA) 8 Nov. 30/4: ‘That would prepare people for our slow-ass music’.
2015		Hartford Courant (CT) 25 Sept. B5/3: The person mentioned that the trial judge [...] wrote ‘slow-ass workers some of you are’.

slowball (n.)

(US) a slow person, a dawdler.

1955

E. Hunter ‘See Him Die’ in Jungle Kids (1967) 104: ‘A only just reached us.’ [...] ‘A’s turnin’ into a real slowball.’.

slow boat (n.) [? the song ‘I want to get you on a slow boat to China’; the emphasis is on the supposed exoticism of marijuana, although, given ‘China’, the link should be to opium]

(S.Afr. drugs) a marijuana cigarette.

1987

J. & W. Branford Dict. S. Afr. Eng. (3rd edn).

slowcoach (n.) [SE slowcoach, one who acts, works, or moves slowly]

an unfashionable person.

1866

J. Greenwood Little Ragamuffin 48: To sport glass ‘blue bells’ or brass buttons [...] would be to declare yourself a ‘slow coach’ at the very least.

slow con (n.)

see under con n.¹

slow connecter (n.)

(US Und.) a second-rate criminal (by criminal standards).

1930

J. Black ‘A Burglar Looks at Laws and Codes’ in Harper’s Mag. CLX 306: To fail to pay the board bill is an admission that he is a ‘slow connecter’; he can’t make the grade.

slow-play (v.) (also slow-walk)

(US prison) to waste time deliberately; to stall someone, e.g. in the payment of a debt.

1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 15: Slow Playin’ also Slow Walkin’ To stall someone. ‘He has been slow playin’ me for three weeks and he only owes me two packs.’.
2002		J. Lerner You Got Nothing Coming 20: Any motherfucker tries to slow-play me [...] I’ll lock your ass down all day and fuck your train!

slowpoke (n.) (also poke) [poke (along) under poke v.]

(US) a sluggard, a lethargic, lazy person.

1847		Joliet Signal (IL) 9 Nov. 1/4: What slow-poke ever benefited the world, his friends or himself?
1865		Richmond Wkly Palladium (IN) 23 Mar. n.p.: ‘Hurrah! for the fellow that gets down the hill first — clear the track there, young Slow-poke!’.
1872		Roscommon & Leitrim Gaz. 19 Oct. 4/1: [to cows] ‘Come a,ong here, old slowpokes’.
1878–9		A. Garcia Tough Trip Through Paradise (1977) 45: La Brie [...] starts in and calls me a slowpoke.
1885		Journal (Russell, KS) 30 Dec. 2/1: The slowpoke who is content to have his [...] card in just one paper is blind to his interests.
1894		J. London Tramp Diary in Jack London On the Road (1979) 59: The quiet easy going, the slow pokes & the comets.
1909		W. McCay Little Nemo in Slumberland [comic strip] Geek! You slow poke.
1915		M.G. Hayden ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 210: slow-poke, a slow person. ‘Ella is such a slow-poke, I don’t like to go with her.’.
1927		W. Edge Main Stem 115: Say, ye damn’ slow-pokes. Why in hell don’t you roll those boxes down.
1936		J.T. Farrell World I Never Made 468: Slowpokes! They’re slow as molasses in January.
1941		F. Swados House of Fury (1959) 85: Hurry up, slowpoke.
1951		P. Whelton Angels are Painted Fair 190: Ten minutes I’ve been waiting [...] What kept you pokes?
1953		T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 179: Good night, old slow-poke.
1957		‘Weldon Hill’ Onionhead (1958) 268: The U-boats [...] preferred to track down the loners, the weak sisters, the slowpokes.
1969		Kerouac letter 27 Aug. in Charters II (1999) 473: There’s such a lack of communication today amongst slowpokes like you and me.
1986		L. Heinemann Paco’s Story (1987) 161: Only a total screaming asshole waits for a slowpoke.
1990		J. Wambaugh Golden Orange (1991) 294: Hurry, slowpoke.
2006		P. Carey Theft 21: I was Slow Bones some days, Slow Poke others.

slow track (n.) [the image of the small town or the West Coast being ‘slower’ than New York] (US black)

the West Coast.

1972

Milner & Milner Black Players 48: California pimpin’ is the relaxed style of pimping also known as the slow track.

In phrases

go-slow (n.)

(Aus. prison) the punishment cells.

1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 35: They would have me sloughed up in the go-slow for another week while the transfer was arranged.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Go slow. A Cell. Used in the sense of confining a prisoner on disciplinary grounds.

have the slows (v.)

1. to suffer some form of imaginary disease to which one attributes lassitude, inactivity etc.

1895		Mirror of Life 7 Dec. 14/2: [I]n the ninth round the boxers had a fit of the slows, and ‘Pop’ had to wake the lads up.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 1091/2: since ca. 1870.

2. (drugs) to be very intoxicated, at which point life outside one’s head seems to crawl by.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 176: Another visual image one gets is the feeling of being weighted down, slowed down [...] having the slows.

slow-em-ups (n.) (also slow-me-down juice) [the effects]

(drugs) any form of barbiturate, tranquillizer or sleeping pill.

1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 167: Dem stums git you so messed up you be fallin’ on yo’ ass! I always call ’em slow-em-ups.
2004		N. ‘Razor’ Smith A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 161: He was a rasta [...] He had ended up in the hospital on the ‘slow-me-down juice’, his words, when the screws had tried to cut his hair on reception.

slow on the draw (adj.) [gun-fighting imagery]

1. not very intelligent; slow on the uptake.

1938		Dundee Courier 17 Jan. 9/5: [headline] Arbroath Were Slow on the Draw.
1947		Tennessean (Nashville, TN) 2 Apr. 8/4: ‘Sorter slow on the draw, too, ain’t we?’.
1951		Dundee Courier 3 Dec. 5/4: [headline] Too Slow on the Draw at dens [...] If the Dundee forwards had been slicker on the draw [etc].
1966–70		in DARE.
1978		Philadelphia Inquirer (PA) 30 July 1/1: You’d have to be a little slow on the draw to go for a deal like that.
1997		O. Trager Amer. Bk of the Dead n.p.: A lucky few saw them [i.e. the Grateful Dead]; those slow on the draw wouldn’t have a second chance.
2005		W. Hobbs Leaving Protection 91: ‘You’re slow on the draw this morning.’ ‘I’ll have another cup of coffee.’.
2014		Visalia Times-Delta 5 Apr. 6/1: ‘The Grand Jury has been slow on the draw investigating school-child security breeches’ [...] So what to make of this so-called ‘slow on the draw’ and ‘dragging’ on the part of the grand jury?

2. (Irish) reluctant to stand one’s round of drinks.

1975

J. Ryan Remembering How We Stood 74: Behan, though generous in many ways [...] was notoriously tight-fisted when it came to buying a round in the company of his coevals – ‘slow on the draw’, as they used to say.

slow on the trigger (adj.) (also slow at the trigger) [gun-fighting imagery]

stupid, dull.

1900		Clitheroe Advertiser 23 Mar. 8/2: I’m a wretched disconsolate man, / A nervous disatisfied wight / [...] / My wit is gunloaded, right — /I am slow at the trigger that’s all.
1913		Indianapolis Star (IN) 4 May 21/2: The indiana senators are slow on the strigger in the selection of men [...] to recommend.
1922		Kansas City Kansan (KS) 28 July 10/5: Lew Tendler, young and slow on he mental trigger.
1932		Courier (Waterloo, IA) 22 June 2/4: Hamburgers [are] banned fro the diets of police officers [...] Hamburgers [...] make patrolmen listless, sluggish and slow on the trigger.
1949		Tatler (London) 5 Oct. 33/2: Sir Humbleby Bumbleby, Bart, who is slow on the trigger and is [...] dreaming of the days when he was the Beau of the Garrison.
1959		J. Thompson Getaway in Four Novels (1983) 8: Being a little slow on the trigger, compared with Rudy at least, he continued to stare for a moment longer.
1970		Ithaca Jrnl (NY) 27 Aug. 20/1: Charkey Johnson, rated dependable but slow on the trigger.

slow up (v.)

(Aus. prison) to place in isolation.

1990

Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Slow up. To put a prisoner in isolation.

slow your roll (v.)

see under roll n.