snail's pace

snail's pace

A very slow, arduous pace or rate. My research is moving at a snail's pace—every experiment I've tried so far has failed. We're never going to recoup our development costs if the snail's pace of these sales doesn't pick up.
See also: pace
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

snail's pace

A very slow pace, as in They're making progress with testing the new vaccine, but at a snail's pace. [c. 1400]
See also: pace
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

at a snail's pace

Very slowly. The slowness of snails was pointed out about 200 b.c. by the Roman poet Plautus and the term “snail’s pace” in English goes back to about 1400. Relative to its size, however, a snail travels a considerable distance each day, using the undersurface of its muscular foot to propel itself.
See also: pace
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • at a snail’s pace
  • at a snail's pace
  • keep pace
  • force the pace
  • lag behind
  • lagging
  • lag
  • can't stand the pace
  • in sync
  • in sync (with someone or something)
References in periodicals archive
Quetta -- Expressing concerns over execution and progress of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects at a snail's pace, Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Abdul Qadus Bizenjo on Tuesday said that realisation of plans under this game-changer corridor would be expedited.
Summary: New Delhi [India], June 13 (ANI): The passengers of the Delhi blue line metro service today faced a technical snag as the line that connects Noida and Vaishali to Dwarka ran at a snail's pace around 5 p.m.
Jamaat-e-Islami leader Sahibzada Tariq said that the matter was moving ahead at a snail's pace.
But the house sale is still inching along at snail's pace.
Smoke covered the skies of most of the emirates roads and traffic, slowed down to a snail's pace as most roads were cordoned off to allow fire fighters easy access to the blaze.
But many of the varied backgrounds are richly-detailed and the picture has an energy which dares you to confine the term 'snail's pace' to history.
Summary: Cairo: The slow-motion retrial of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak dragged on at snail's pace ...
The case of the deaths of the three men at the Kahrizak detention center is now more than three years old and is proceeding at a snail's pace. No one has yet been tried.
In fact business is going at a snail's pace when restaurant inspector Fernando Peire calls.
More than a century ago, gangs of burly men would lay railroad ties at a snail's pace, driving them in with sledgehammers.
His dad Pankaj Kapur's directorial debut is also moving at snail's pace. And while Parmeet Sethi's Yashraj film Badmaash Company is the only one to keep his star power going for a while, news is Shahid met Vishal Bhardwaj.
As long as you keep your form and let your muscles do the work, going at a snail's pace doesn't help a bit.
For generations the remaining bottomland forests of the Mississippi River and its tributaries have survived as places where trees grow large, shadows grow deep, and sinuous rivers and streams move at a snail's pace. For those who like their landscapes bright, park-like, and manicured, these dank, vine-ensnarled woods can be uncomfortable, even unnerving.
In their June 13 report, they expressed concern about the snail's pace at which proven road-tested technologies like CTI were being accepted by government regulators.