The Only Use of
indolent
in
The Scarlet Letter
- On emerging from the Old Manse, it was chiefly this strange, indolent, unjoyous attachment for my native town that brought me to fill a place in Uncle Sam's brick edifice, when I might as well, or better, have gone somewhere else.†
p. 13.4indolent = lazy
Definitions:
-
(1)
(indolent as in: she is naturally indolent) lazy; disinclined to work
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
Indolent is also used in medicine to describe conditions (e.g., some tumors) that are slow to develop or heal and are painless. Very rarely it may refer to something that is slow and unenergetic without any connotation of laziness--such as small lapping waves.