subs. (old and still colloquial).—1. A clumsy lout, an idler; hence (2) anything indifferent: usually in phrase ‘no SLOUCH’; and (3) an awkward lumpish gait. As verb. = to walk lumpishly or sullenly; SLOUCHING (or SLOUCHY) = awkward, ungainly, heavy (GROSE).
[?]. MS. Gloucester. SLOWCH, a lazy lubber, who has nothing tight about him, with his stockings about his heels, his clothes unbutton’d, and his hat flapping about his ears.
1570. P. LEVINS, Manipulus Vocabulorum [E.E.T.S.], 217. A SLOUKE, iners, ertis, ignarus.
1578. WHETSTONE, Promos and Cassandra, 47. Thou filthie fine SLOUCH.
1633. JONSON, A Tale of a Tub, iv. 5.
| What, Ball, I say!—I think the idle SLOUCH | |
| Be fallen asleep in the barn, he stays so long. |
1705. WARD, Hudibras Redivivus, I. vii. 20. You sooty, smutty, nasty SLOUCH.
1714. GAY, The Shepherd’s Week, Mon., l. 40.
| Begin thy carols then, thou vaunting SLOUCH! | |
| Be thine the oaken staff, or mine the pouch. |
1725. SWIFT, Letter to Pope, 29 Sept. Our doctor … hath a sort of SLOUCH in his walk!
1785. COWPER, The Task, iv. 639. He stands erect; his SLOUCH becomes a walk.
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, ii. 374 (Jerry Jarvis’s Wig). In a few minutes his tiny figure was seen ‘SLOUCHING’ UP the ascent.
1866. G. ELIOT, Felix Holt, Intro. The shepherd with a slow and SLOUCHING walk … moved aside, as if unwillingly.
1870. Chambers’s Journal, 9 July, 447. He sees a SLOUCHING, shambling, hulk of a fellow standing listlessly in a doorway.
1872. S. L. CLEMENS (‘Mark Twain’), Roughing It, xlvii. He was always nifty himself, and so you bet you his funeral ain’t going to be no SLOUCH.
1877. Scribner’s Magazine, Sept., 510. Bow-legged, SLOUCHY, ungraceful and inactive.
1881. O. W. HOLMES, Pages from an Old Volume of Life, 58. They looked SLOUCHY, listless, torpid,—an ill-conditioned crew.
1882. E. V. SMALLEY, The Supreme Court of the United States, in The Century Magazine, xxv. 176. Looking like a SLOUCHY country bumpkin.
1885. The Westminster Review, cxxv. 85. He had a long, strong, uncouth body; rather rough-hewn SLOUCHING features.
18[?]. H. KENDALL, Billy Vickers.
| At punching oxen you may guess | |
| There’s nothing out can ‘camp’ him: | |
| He has, in fact, the SLOUCH and dress | |
| Which bullock-driver stamp him. |
1885. Daily Telegraph, 14 Sept. A child taken by a SLOUCHING villain.
1887. MORLEY ROBERTS, The Western Avernus, xiv. A ‘rustler’ … means a worker, an energetic one, and no SLOUCH can be a rustler.
1899. R. WHITEING, No. 5 John Street, xi. It is near bedtime, and those who have come to stay for the night are SLOUCHING to the lairs.
4. (common).—A slouch-hat (i.e., a hat with a broad and drooping brim).
1818. SCOTT, The Heart of Mid-lothian, xliii. Even the old hat looked smarter … instead of SLOUCHING backward or forward on the laird’s head, as it was thrown on. Ibid., iii. A sailor’s cap SLOUCHED over his face.
1871. Scribner’s Magazine, Sept. A big, farmer-looking fellow in a SLOUCH-HAT.
1889. C. D. WARNER, A Little Journey in the World, in Harper’s Magazine, lxxix. June, 38. Middle-aged men in SLOUCH HATS lounge around with hungry eyes.
