How to Use indolent in a Sentence

indolent

adjective
  • She is indolent and irresponsible.
  • Indeed, this was one of Alexis de Tocqueville’s many criticisms of the indolent slavers of the Old South.
    Cameron Hilditch, National Review, 29 May 2021
  • And at the epicenter of the country’s violent upheaval is the indolent cow.
    Amar Diwakar, New Republic, 26 July 2017
  • Summer's too short and its mood is too indolent to make this into a to-do list, but here are some ways to intensify your summer.
    Polly Campbell, Cincinnati.com, 13 June 2019
  • Tom is too indolent either to build a fortune, as Bankman-Fried did, or to embrace the philosophy on which he was raised, as Bankman-Fried did.
    Timothy Noah, The New Republic, 16 Dec. 2022
  • In fact, many people harbor indolent forms of cancer that do not actually pose a risk to their health.
    Christie Aschwanden, Wired, 10 Jan. 2020
  • Regular prostate cancer varies from a slow-growing, indolent form that is easy to treat in its early stages to a much more aggressive form.
    Dr. Keith Roach, oregonlive, 18 July 2023
  • Some cancers behave just the opposite of these slow-growing, indolent ones.
    Christie Aschwanden, Discover Magazine, 10 Feb. 2012
  • The Northern League once derided southern Italians as smelly, shifty and indolent.
    Michael Birnbaum, Washington Post, 6 Mar. 2018
  • Mood is clearly drawn to anyone indulging imagery: dawn, ripples on water, and a journey that passes for progress to the happily indolent.
    Peter Dobrin, Philly.com, 14 Aug. 2017
  • For example, some work suggests that these cancers are more indolent, meaning slow to spread, than bladder cancers in older adults.
    Markham Heid, Time, 15 Nov. 2022
  • The disease can be indolent, which spreads slowly with few signs and symptoms, or aggressive, which spreads quickly with severe symptoms, the institute said.
    Madeline Holcombe, CNN, 16 Jan. 2020
  • Kemp also worries about the cascading effects of having an indolent United States in treaty meetings.
    Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic, 30 May 2017
  • Suddenly, indolent cells become cancers that spread and kill.
    Gina Kolata, New York Times, 16 Jan. 2018
  • Quantities of cracked ice rattled refreshingly in the goblet; sprigs of mint peered above its rim; a mass of white sugar, too sweetly indolent to melt, rested on the mint; and like rose buds on a snow bank, luscious strawberries crowned the sugar.
    Mark Will-Weber, Town & Country, 10 Apr. 2017
  • Among men with an elevated PSA who are found on biopsy to have cancer, about 80 percent have an indolent form of the disease that is highly unlikely to become life-threatening.
    New York Times, 24 Feb. 2020
  • Listed among the seven deadly sins, and used to describe someone who is lazy, indolent and otherwise lackadaisical, sloth takes on a different meaning when one is born — for the first time — at a major South Florida attraction.
    Doug Phillips, sun-sentinel.com, 18 July 2019
  • Granted, not all who have been reluctant to return to work--at least while the checks keep coming--are necessarily indolent, but many seem to be and that is a bad condition to encourage in an individual and a nation.
    Arkansas Online, 2 July 2021
  • The story’s indolent pacing brings into clear focus moments of cruelty and betrayal.
    The Atlantic, 28 June 2019
  • This approach results in the diagnosis of many fewer indolent cancers that would likely never threaten a man’s life, said Dr. Klotz, a professor of surgery at the University of Toronto and a mentor in the field of prostate cancer diagnosis.
    New York Times, 2 Mar. 2020
  • The myth of the happy, docile, and emotionally indolent slave is historical tripe originally propagated by those who trafficked in human bondage.
    Phillip Morris, cleveland.com, 9 May 2018
  • Overdiagnosis is what happens when a mammogram finds an indolent cancer.
    Christie Aschwanden, Discover Magazine, 10 Feb. 2012
  • But within this indolent world there were driven, ambitious people, and none more so than the unofficial mayor of South Beach himself: designer Gianni Versace.
    Nancy Bilyeau, Town & Country, 15 Jan. 2018
  • Bankers and financiers always had a somewhat dark reputation as swindlers, but technologists reframed them as indolent parasites who made nothing and preyed upon the inventions of others.
    Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 4 Feb. 2022
  • That’s why one of the important warning signs of nitrogen deficiency is yellowing, pale green leaves—especially if this chlorosis develops in the oldest leaves—and indolent plant growth despite fine weather.
    Beth Hanson, Good Housekeeping, 24 Aug. 2015
  • Though pancreatic cancer has a reputation as an aggressive and fast-moving disease, Dr. Simeone said some subtypes are indolent and slow-growing.
    New York Times, 23 Aug. 2019
  • Bankman-Fried, by his own admission, became similarly indolent in managing FTX.
    Timothy Noah, The New Republic, 16 Dec. 2022
  • This form of direct democracy was intended to allow voters to become the lawmakers of last resort when their representatives proved to be indolent, incompetent or corrupt.
    Jon Coupal, Orange County Register, 10 June 2017
  • What had been indolent and slow growing has suddenly become aggressive, attacking an organ that has been unaffected since his diagnosis in 2012.
    Paul Sisson, sandiegouniontribune.com, 26 May 2017
  • At home, however, there's something indolent about listening to a record that offers no hope for the unexpected.
    John Milward, Rolling Stone, 11–25 July 1991

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'indolent.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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