tor·pid

(tôr′pĭd)

adj.

a. Sluggish, lethargic, or inactive: "It is a man's own fault, it is from want of use, if his mind grows torpid in old age" (Samuel Johnson).

b. Showing little interest; apathetic: a torpid audience.

2. Conducive to sluggishness or inactivity, especially in being warm and humid: a torpid summer evening.

3. Dormant; hibernating.

[Latin torpidus, numbed, paralyzed, from torpēre, to be stiff; see ster- in Indo-European roots.]

tor·pid′i·ty (-ĭ-tē) adv.

tor′pid·ly adv.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

torpid

(ˈtɔːpɪd)

adj

1. apathetic, sluggish, or lethargic

2. (Zoology) (of a hibernating animal) dormant; having greatly reduced metabolic activity

3. unable to move or feel

[C17: from Latin torpidus, from torpēre to be numb, motionless]

torˈpidity, ˈtorpidness n

ˈtorpidly adv

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

tor•pid

(ˈtɔr pɪd)

adj.

1. inactive or sluggish, as a bodily organ.

2. slow; dull; apathetic; lethargic.

3. dormant, as a hibernating or estivating animal.

[1605–15; < Latin torpidus numb, derivative of torpēre to be stiff or numb]

tor•pid′i•ty, n.

tor′pid•ly, adv.

syn: See inactive.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adj.	1.	torpid - slow and apathetic; "she was fat and inert"; "a sluggish worker"; "a mind grown torpid in old age" inert, sluggish, soggy inactive - not active physically or mentally; "illness forced him to live an inactive life"; "dreamy and inactive by nature"
	2.	torpid - in a condition of biological rest or suspended animation; "dormant buds"; "a hibernating bear"; "torpid frogs" dormant, hibernating biological science, biology - the science that studies living organisms asleep - in a state of sleep; "were all asleep when the phone rang"; "fell asleep at the wheel"

torpid

adjective inactive, lazy, sluggish, languid, slow, dull, passive, numb, motionless, stagnant, inert, slow-moving, lethargic, apathetic, lymphatic, drowsy, listless, indolent, languorous, somnolent, lackadaisical, slothful, benumbed, fainéant He led a lazy, torpid life at the weekends.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

torpid

adjective

1. Lacking responsiveness or alertness:

benumbed, dull, insensible, insensitive, numb, stuporous, unresponsive, wooden.

2. Lacking mental and physical alertness and activity:

hebetudinous, lethargic, sluggish, stupid, stuporous.

Slang: dopey.

Translations

intorpidito torpore

torpid

[ˈtɔːpɪd] ADJ → aletargado

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

torpid

[ˈtɔː^rpɪd] adj (= lethargic) [person, mood] → apathique

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

torpid

adj (= lethargic) → träge; (= apathetic) → abgestumpft; (Zool) → torpid

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

torpid

[ˈtɔːpɪd] adj (frm) → intorpidito/a

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

tor·pid

a. tórpido-a, torpe en los movimientos.

English-Spanish Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

No philosopher was he-- just a plain, commonplace person gifted, for the time being, with a pathological indifference: the organ that he feared consequences with was torpid. So, with no particular apprehension for his immediate future, he fell asleep and all was peace with Henry Armstrong.

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He had detected the latent sensuality, which unfolded under his delicate sense of her nature's requirements like a torpid, torrid, sensitive blossom.

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Though the artillery of the left wing of the Russians kept up a steady fire on this mass,--visible like a stain now black, now flaming, in the midst of the trackless snow,--this shot and shell seemed to the torpid creatures only one inconvenience the more.

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Not with such fervor prays the torpid recluse, looking forward to the cold, sunless, stagnant calm of a day that is to be like innumerable yesterdays.

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But while hapless Dough-Boy was by nature dull and torpid in his intellects, Pip, though over tender-hearted, was at bottom very bright, with that pleasant, genial, jolly brightness peculiar to his tribe; a tribe, which ever enjoy all holidays and festivities with finer, freer relish than any other race.

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Memory was not so utterly torpid in Silas that it could not be awakened by these words.

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I lie awake while thou sleepest, I weep while thou singest, I am faint with fasting while thou art sluggish and torpid from pure repletion.

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For my soul and my tongue are really torpid, and I do not know how to answer you; and though I have been delivered of an infinite variety of speeches about virtue before now, and to many persons--and very good ones they were, as I thought--at this moment I cannot even say what virtue is.

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Yet with this high temperature, almost every beetle, several genera of spiders, snails, and land-shells, toads and lizards were all lying torpid beneath stones.

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They were pleasant spring days, in which the winter of man's discontent was thawing as well as the earth, and the life that had lain torpid began to stretch itself.

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Hence, it came about, that when necessity constrained him to speak, his tongue was torpid, awkward, and like a door whose hinges have grown rusty.

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"If it'll please you I'll come," said Cronshaw, with his torpid not unpleasant smile.

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