slowness

See Also: MOVEMENT

1. Agonizingly slow like the gradual ripening of a peach on a limb —Sue Grafton
2. By degrees, as lawyers go to heaven —Anon
3. [A locomotive] came slowly, like a bison —Saul Bellow
4. (An hour) crawled by like a sick cockroach —Raymond Chandler
5. Creeping like a snail —William Shakespeare
6. Dragged around … like a dog with three legs —Shelby Hearon
7. [An endless journey] like crossing the Sahara by pogo stick —Robert Silverberg
8. Gather slowly, like a storm that swirls at sea —Anon
9. Gradually, like a man entering a swimming pool slowly —Michael Korda

   The gradual process being compared to entering a pool is a return to work.

10. Grew with such infinite slowness, like a stalactite —Lawrence Durrell
11. Happening in slow motion like a baseball replay —Maxine Kumin
12. Have all the speed and liquidity of a slug skating across salt —Erik Sandberg-Diment, New York Times, January 18, 1987

    Diment’s comparison refers to a word processing program.

13. It [the movie Kangaroo] moves like a slug climbing a cornstalk —Rex Reed, 1987
14. It takes time … like getting your hair curled —Carlos Baker
15. Leisurely as the drift of continents —T. Coraghessan Boyle
16. Life passed him as slowly as traffic on a main artery during the evening rush hour —Anon
17. Moved as slow as paste —Paul Theroux
18. (My feet seemed deep in sand. I) moved like some heat-weary animal —Theodore Roethke
19. Moved slowly, like a diver with heavy boots —Graham Swift
20. Moved slowly through her days, like a mermaid floating in a translucent sea where all was calm, shadowy, and ambiguous —Peter Meinke
21. (Here and there a herd of stray cows) moves as slowly as old men on their way to the graveyard —A. D. Winans
22. (The government) moves like a huge blob of molasses on a two-degree slope —John D. MacDonald

    An extension of the cliche, “Slow as molasses.”

23. Moving about, slow as earthquake survivors —Brian Moore
24. A process about as slow and arduous as the building of the pyramids —Edith Wharton

    The process Wharton is describing is character building.

25. Pushes ahead; slow as a weight —Delmore Schwartz
26. Slow and silent, like old movies —Sharon Sheehe Stark

    See Also: SILENCE

27. Slow as a dream —Robert Penn Warren
28. Slow as a hog on ice with his tail frozen —American colloquialism, attributed to Vermont

    The way Vermonters say it: “With his tail froze.”

29. Slow as a tortoise —American colloquialism

    To add emphasis there’s, “As old as an old tortoise.”

30. Slow as dough —Sharon Sheehe Stark

    In a story entitled The Horsehair, the simile is used to draw a portrait of a dull, unambitious man.

31. Slow as molasses going uphill —Jamaican expression

    A variant of, “Slow as molasses.”

32. Slow as the hands of a schoolroom clock —W. D. Snodgrass
33. Slow as the oak’s growth —John Greenleaf Whittier
34. Slow-blooded, like a lizard in winter —Mary Hood
35. Slowly, like bodies being dragged —Ross Macdonald
36. Slowly, like turtles cooking in the sun, we rotated our heads —T. Coraghessan Boyle

    See Also: HEAD MOVEMENTS

37. Slow-moving like an old woman with a walker —Anon
38. Slow reluctant process [a city’s morning stirrings], like the waking of a heavy sleeper —Edith Wharton
39. (Opened the case) with deliberate ceremonial slowness, as if breaking bread at a wedding banquet —Richard Lourie