Sloth and bats are in it (7)
I believe the answer is:
inertia
'sloth' is the definition.
(inertia can mean laziness or sloth)
'bats are in it' is the wordplay.
'bats' indicates anagramming the letters (I've seen this in other clues).
'are'+'in'+'it'='areinit'
'areinit' is an anagram of 'INERTIA'.
'and' is the link.
(Other definitions for inertia that I've seen before include "motionless?" , "Idleness" , "Disinclination to respond" , "Slowness to move or act" , "Torpor" .)