menu_book

Definition

A frustratingly slow rate of speed.

history_edu

Origins

Due to the fact that snails move very slowly.

chat_bubble_outline

In Context

  • "My grandmother drives her car at a snail's pace."
  • "He describes the operation thus: "The heavy ram employed to impart the finishing strokes, hoisted up with double purchase and snail's pace to the summit of the Piling Engine, and then falling down like a thunderbolt on the head of the devoted timber, driving it perhaps a single half inch in to the stratum below, is well calculated to put to the test the virtue of patience, while it illustrates the old adage of—slow and sure.""
  • "Tim Johnson[a sick dog] was advancing at a snail’s pace, but he was not playing or sniffing at foliage: he seemed dedicated to one course and motivated by an invisible force that was inching him toward us. We could see him shiver like a horse shedding flies; his jaw opened and shut; he was alist, but he was being pulled gradually toward us."
account_tree

See Also

  • slow as a snail
  • slow as molasses
  • slow as molasses in January
  • walking pace