tree sloth
1
4.2
- noun
- /tri slɔθ/
:
perezoso
- A tree sloth spends most of its life in trees, feeding on leaves and fruit.
- a three-toed tree sloth
- a toed tree sloth
Examples
-
As slowly and deliberately as a tree sloth, she resumed her climb.
Fiction book (1999) -
Yet this claw could only belong to an arboreal creature like some impossible tree sloth.
-
I want ale, curds and blistered meats sent into my room in 10 minutes, or I will turn you into a legless tree sloth.
-
The opossums, armadillos, anteaters, and tree sloths living there today only provide a hint of the continent's homegrown treasures.
Academic text (2009) -
The canines and incisors together form a specialized cutting tool, most similar to what is found in some present-day tree sloths and in the extinct giant ground sloth.
Academic text (1991) -
In the rainforest, the tree sloth moves slowly, hanging upside down from the branches.
-
The tree sloth is known for its sluggish pace, often taking hours to move just a short distance.
Synonyms
16
2.3
A slow animal that lives in trees and hangs upside down while eating leaves
1
6.0
A slow animal from Central and South America that lives in trees and has three long claws on each foot
1
5.5
A slow tree animal from Central and South America with two long claws on each front foot
1
9.9
A three-toed sloth from South America with long claws that moves slowly
A group of slow three-toed sloths that live in trees in Central and South America
A family of slow mammals that live in trees in Central and South America, including three-toed sloths
A family of mammals that includes the two-toed sloths of Central and South America
A group of two-toed sloths that live in Central and South America
A slow tree-dwelling animal with two long claws on each front foot, found in Central and South American rainforests
A slow animal from South America that lives in trees and has two long claws on each front foot
A sloth that lives in trees in Central and South America with two long claws on each front foot
Surface Forms
Morphology
Both constituents are literal and their combination directly denotes a sloth associated with trees; since 'sloth' already encodes a tree-dwelling mammal, 'tree sloth' is immediately interpretable by learners who know the words. This compositional, non-idiomatic pattern is common cross-linguistically and follows regular noun + noun specification, so it is transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
The name tree sloth comes from a simple picture: the animal lives in a tree and moves very slowly, and the word sloth originally meant 'laziness'. That's why tree sloth means a slow animal that lives in trees.