PONDEROUS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does ponderous mean? 

• PONDEROUS (adjective)
  The adjective PONDEROUS has 3 senses:

1. slow and laborious because of weight

2. having great mass and weight and unwieldiness

3. labored and dull

  Familiarity information: PONDEROUS used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PONDEROUS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Slow and laborious because of weight

Synonyms:

heavy; lumbering; ponderous

Context example:

a ponderous yawn

Similar:

heavy-footed ((of movement) lacking ease or lightness)

Derivation:

ponderousness (the property of being large in mass)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Having great mass and weight and unwieldiness

Context example:

ponderous weapons

Similar:

heavy (of comparatively great physical weight or density)

Derivation:

ponderosity; ponderousness (the property of being large in mass)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Labored and dull

Context example:

a ponderous speech

Similar:

uninteresting (arousing no interest or attention or curiosity or excitement)

Derivation:

ponderousness (an oppressive quality that is laborious and solemn and lacks grace or fluency)

 Context examples 

He was too ponderous and slow.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

After a pause of a moment, he proceeded, in his stately way, to the door, drew back the ponderous bolts, unhooked the heavy chains, and began to draw it open.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

“I know you have it in for me,” Johnson continued with his unalterable and ponderous slowness. “You do not like me. You—you—”

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he placed his cuttings.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Instead of answering, Professor Challenger entered, shook hands with myself and Lord John, bowed with ponderous insolence to Professor Summerlee, and sank back into a basket-chair, which creaked and swayed beneath his weight.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Alleyne sprang in front of the Norman, but his sword was shattered and he himself beaten to the ground by a second blow from the ponderous weapon.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This was a blessing, bright, vivid, and exhilarating;—not like the ponderous gift of gold: rich and welcome enough in its way, but sobering from its weight.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

We had sprung to our feet, and for a few moments we stared in silent amazement at this ponderous piece of wreckage, which told of some sudden and fatal storm far out on the ocean of life.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In one of these cells were several globes, or balls, of a most ponderous metal, about the bigness of our heads, and requiring a strong hand to lift them: the other cell contained a heap of certain black grains, but of no great bulk or weight, for we could hold above fifty of them in the palms of our hands.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Hans Nelson looked at the empty chair, shook his head slowly, and, with a ponderous attempt at humor, said: "Always is he first at the grub. It is very strange. Maybe he is sick."

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)