slow study

slow study (plural slow studies)

1. (US) One who takes a long time to learn or understand things; a slow learner.

   Antonym: quick study

   • 1891 November, Robert Louis Stevenson, Letter to W. Craibe Angus:

     I used to write as slow as judgment; now I write rather fast; but I am still 'a slow study,' and sit along while silent on my eggs. Unconscious thought, there is the only method: macerate your subject, let it boil slow, then take the lid off and look in —and there your stuff is, good or bad.

   • 1897 August, Charles Egbert Craddock, “The Juggler”, in The Atlantic Monthly, volume 80, number 478, page 254:

     He does it so badly, and he is such a slow study, that I'm afraid the first act will break down if I don't give it some vim; after you are once on, the thing will go and I shan't care a red.

   • 1982, Kasey Michaels, The Belligerent Miss Boynton:

     I was always a slow study, imp, but I made my own decisions.

   • 2017, Vance G. Morgan, Freelance Christianity: Philosophy, Faith, and the Real World, page 68:

     Although I'm a very slow study, Annie Dillard's simple observation is beginning to seep in.

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see slow,‎ study.

• “slow study”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.