Example: Investments-led growth can reverse the situation but the policy response has been sluggish.
1. Sluggish [sluhg-ish]
Adjective: indisposed to action or exertion; lacking in energy; lazy; indolent; not acting or working with full vigor, as bodily organs; slow to act or respond; moving slowly, or having little motion, as a stream; slow, as motion; as trade, business, or sales.
Synonyms: heavy, inactive, lethargic, listless, slack, slow, stagnant, apathetic, blah, comatose, dopey, down, dragging, draggy, drippy, hebetudinous, indolent, inert, laid-back.
Antonyms: active, alert, busy, energetic.
Example: The economy’s four growth engines are stalling or slacking.
2. Stall [stawl]
Noun: a compartment in a stable or shed for the accommodation of one animal; a stable or shed for horses or cattle.
Verb: (of an engine, car, airplane, etc.) to be stalled or go through the process of stalling (sometimes followed by out); to come to a standstill; be brought to a stop; to stick fast, as in mire.
Synonyms: halt, hamper, hinder, interrupt, postpone, put off, slow, stay, stop, suspend, arrest, brake, check, die, equivocate, fence, filibuster, hedge, prevaricate.
Antonyms: advance, aid, allow, assist.
3. Slack [slak]
Adjective: not tight, taut, firm, or tense; loose; negligent; careless; remiss; slow, sluggish, or indolent; not active or busy; dull; not brisk; moving very slowly, as the tide, wind, or water; weak; lax.
Adverb: in a slack manner.
Noun: a slack condition or part; the part of a rope, sail, or the like, that hangs loose, without strain upon it; a decrease in activity, as in business or work; a period of decreased activity.
Verb: to be remiss in respect to (some matter, duty, right, etc.); shirk; leave undone; to make or allow to become less active, vigorous, intense, etc.; relax (efforts, labor, speed, etc.); lessen; moderate (often followed by up); to make loose, or less tense or taut, as a rope; loosen (often followed by off or out).
Synonyms: abate, decrease, diminish, dodge, drop off, dwindle, ease, ease off, featherbed, flag, goldbrick, goof off, idle, lax, lay back, lessen, let up.
Antonyms: stiffen, tighten.
Example: Yet, the debilitating impact of these on growth has received inadequate policy attention.
4. Debilitate [dih-bil-i-teyt]
Verb: to make weak or feeble; enfeeble.
Synonyms: attenuate, cripple, disable, eviscerate, blunt, devitalize, enervate, enfeeble, exhaust, extenuate, harm, hurt, injure, mar, prostrate, relax, sap, spoil, unbrace.
Antonyms: aid, assist, enable, help.
Example: The flow of credit in the economy has thinned to a trickle, as the government moved on bad bank loans belatedly and inefficaciously.
5. Trickle [trik-uh l]
Verb: to flow or fall by drops, or in a small, gentle stream; to come, go, or pass bit by bit, slowly, or irregularly; to cause to trickle.
Noun: a trickling flow or stream; a small, slow, or irregular quantity of anything coming, going, or proceeding.
Synonyms: crawl, creep, dribble, flow, leak, ooze, percolate, seep, stream, distill, drip, drop, exude, issue, trill, weep.
Antonyms: pour, flow.
Example: But the policy response so far has been feeble and misses urgency.
6. Feeble [fee-buh l]
Adjective: physically weak, as from age or sickness; frail; weak intellectually or morally; lacking in volume, loudness, brightness, distinctness, etc.; lacking in force, strength, or effectiveness.
Synonyms: ailing, decrepit, flabby, fragile, frail, incompetent, inefficient, infirm, lame, paltry, puny, sickly, tame, weak, weakened, aged, chicken, debilitated, delicate, doddering, dopey, effete, emasculated, enervated, enfeebled, etiolated, exhausted, failing, faint.
Antonyms: able, capable, competent, efficient.
Example: What’s more, he strutted and stammered more than once at the question and answer session, exhibiting his inability to answer the questions extempore.
7. Strut [struht]
Verb: to walk with a vain, pompous bearing, as with head erect and chest thrown out, as if expecting to impress observers.
Noun: the act of strutting; a strutting walk or gait.
Synonyms: prance, sashay, stalk, stride, swagger, flaunt, flounce, grandstand, mince, parade, peacock, swank, sweep.
Antonyms: conceal, hide.
Example: Instead of his image-building endeavors abroad, Mr. Gandhi should spend time at home on party-building exercises that counter the ruling party’s hollow claims of achievement in every nook and corner.
8. Endeavor [en-dev-er]
Verb: to exert oneself to do or effect something; make an effort; strive; to attempt; try; to attempt to achieve or gain.
Noun: a strenuous effort; attempt.
Synonyms: aim, effort, enterprise, struggle, undertaking, venture, essay, exertion, fling, go, header, labor, lick, push, shot, stab, striving, toil, travail, trial, try, try-on, whack.
Antonyms: idleness, inactivity, passivity, entertainment.
9. Nook [noo k]
Noun: a corner, as in a room; any secluded or obscure corner; any small recess; any remote or sheltered spot.
Synonyms: alcove, crevice, den, cavity, compartment, cranny, hideout, hole, inglenook, niche, opening, quoin, recess, retreat, byplace.
Antonyms: closure, solid.
Example: China’s reluctance.
10. Reluctance [ri-luhk-tuh ns]
Noun: unwillingness; disinclination; Electricity. the resistance to magnetic flux offered by a magnetic circuit, determined by the permeability and arrangement of the materials of the circuit.
Synonyms: hesitancy, hesitation, objection, unwillingness, doubt, qualm, questioning.