as in slowly
at a pace that is less than usual, desirable, or expected
the car responds sluggishly until it warms up
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Recent Examples of sluggishly
Cold weather slows the chemical reactions in these batteries, with the lithium ions moving more sluggishly through the electrolyte liquid.
—
Miriam Fauzia, Dallas Morning News, 26 Jan. 2026
Quidone walked past a correction officer, looking sick, and again vomited into a dayroom trash bin before moving sluggishly back to his cell.
—John Annese, New York Daily News, 16 Jan. 2026
While plenty of talent is coming back to Columbus, Ohio State has to speed things up offensively after playing too sluggishly this season.
—Paul Myerberg, USA Today, 2 Jan. 2026
Their survival to this day tells us Mars' mantle has evolved sluggishly over billions of years.
—Theo Burman, MSNBC Newsweek, 29 Aug. 2025
Miriam Fauzia, Dallas Morning News, 26 Jan. 2026
Quidone walked past a correction officer, looking sick, and again vomited into a dayroom trash bin before moving sluggishly back to his cell.
—John Annese, New York Daily News, 16 Jan. 2026
While plenty of talent is coming back to Columbus, Ohio State has to speed things up offensively after playing too sluggishly this season.
—Paul Myerberg, USA Today, 2 Jan. 2026
Their survival to this day tells us Mars' mantle has evolved sluggishly over billions of years.
—Theo Burman, MSNBC Newsweek, 29 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sluggishly
slowly
Adverb
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Shiffrin, winner of 71 slalom World Cup victories and a gold medal in the event, started slowly and skied tentatively to finish 15th out of 18 skiers, her worst place since March 17, 2012.—
Dana O’Neil,
CNN Money,
10 Feb. 2026
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Upon slowly approaching each other, Diabate put his head down to butt up against Duren’s forehead and Duren proceeded to swipe at Diabate.—
Roderick Boone,
Charlotte Observer,
10 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Sluggishly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sluggishly. Accessed 14 Feb. 2026.
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