indolence
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ˈɪndələns/
Noun

indolence (uncountable)

  1. Habitual laziness or sloth.
    • '''1776

      }, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume III, London: Printed for W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], OCLC 995235880 ↗, page 633 ↗:

      The sacred indolence''' of the monks was devoutly embraced by a servile and effeminate age; but if superstition had not afforded a decent retreat, the same vices would have tempted the unworthy Romans to desert, from baser motives, the standard of the republic.

    • 1814 July, [Jane Austen], chapter XI, in Mansfield Park: A Novel. In Three Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for T[homas] Egerton, […], OCLC 39810224 ↗, page 229 ↗:
      It is indolence Mr. Bertram, indeed. Indolence and love of ease—a want of all laudable ambition, of taste for good company, or of inclination to take the trouble of being agreeable, which make men Clergymen.
    • 1912, Stewart Edward White, chapter 19, in The Sign at Six:
      [H]er whole figure expressed a tense vibrant life in singular contrast to the apparent indolence of the men at whom she was talking.
    • 2001 September 10, Garrison Keillor, “In praise of laziness”, in Time[http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1000727,00.html]:
      [N]ow, after five weeks of doing nothing, I am an authority on the subject of indolence and glad to share my views with you.
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