Slap noun [ Middle English slappe ; akin to LG. slappe , German schlappe ; probably of imitative origin.] A blow, esp. one given with the open hand, or with something broad.

Slap transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Slapped ; present participle & verbal noun Slapping .] To strike with the open hand, or with something broad.

Slap adverb [ Confer LG. slap , German schlapp . See Slap , noun ] With a sudden and violent blow; hence, quickly; instantly; directly. [ Colloq.] "The railroad cars drive slap into the city." Thackeray.

Slapdash adverb [ Slap + dash .]
1. In a bold, careless manner; at random. [ Colloq.]

2. With a slap; all at once; slap. [ Colloq.] Prior.

Slapdash transitive verb To apply, or apply something to, in a hasty, careless, or rough manner; to roughcast; as, to slapdash mortar or paint on a wall, or to slapdash a wall. [ Colloq.] Halliwell.

Slape adjective [ Icelandic sleipr slippery; akin to English slip .] Slippery; smooth; crafty; hypocritical. [ Prov. Eng.]

Slape ale , plain ale, as opposed to medicated or mixed ale. [ Prov. Eng.]

Slapeface noun A soft-spoken, crafty hypocrite. [ Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.

Slapjack noun A flat batter cake cooked on a griddle; a flapjack; a griddlecake. [ Local, U.S.]

Slapper noun
1. One who, or that which, slaps.

2. Anything monstrous; a whopper. [ Slang] Grose.

Slapper, Slapping adjective Very large; monstrous; big. [ Slang.]

Slash transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Slashed ; present participle & verbal noun Slashing .] [ Middle English slaschen , of uncertain origin; confer Old French esclachier to break, esclechier , esclichier , to break, and English slate , slice , slit , transitive verb ]
1. To cut by striking violently and at random; to cut in long slits.

2. To lash; to ply the whip to. [ R.] King.

3. To crack or snap, as a whip. [ R.] Dr. H. More.

Slash intransitive verb To strike violently and at random, esp. with an edged instrument; to lay about one indiscriminately with blows; to cut hastily and carelessly.

Hewing and slashing at their idle shades.

Spenser.

Slash noun
1. A long cut; a cut made at random.

2. A large slit in the material of any garment, made to show the lining through the openings.

3. [ Confer Slashy .] plural Swampy or wet lands overgrown with bushes. [ Local, U.S.] Bartlett.

Slash noun A opening or gap in a forest made by wind, fire, or other destructive agency.

We passed over the shoulder of a ridge and around the edge of a fire slash , and then we had the mountain fairly before us.

Henry Van Dyke.

Slash pine (Botany) A kind of pine tree ( Pinus Cubensis ) found in Southern Florida and the West Indies; -- so called because it grows in "slashes."

Slashed adjective
1. Marked or cut with a slash or slashes; deeply gashed; especially, having long, narrow openings, as a sleeve or other part of a garment, to show rich lining or under vesture.

A gray jerkin, with scarlet and slashed sleeves.

Sir W. Scott.

2. (Botany) Divided into many narrow parts or segments by sharp incisions; laciniate.

Slasher noun (Textile Manuf.) A machine for applying size to warp yarns.

Slashy adjective [ Confer Swedish slaska to dabble in water. Confer Slush .] Wet and dirty; slushy. [ Prov. Eng.]

Slat noun [ CF. Slot a bar.] A thin, narrow strip or bar of wood or metal; as, the slats of a window blind.

Slat transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Slatted ; present participle & verbal noun Slatting .] [ Middle English slatten ; confer Icelandic sletta to slap, to dab.]
1. To slap; to strike; to beat; to throw down violently. [ Prov. Eng. & Colloq. U.S.]

How did you kill him?
Slat[ t]ed his brains out.

Marston.

2. To split; to crack. [ Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.

3. To set on; to incite. See 3d Slate . [ Prov. Eng.]

Slatch noun [ See Slack .] (Nautical) (a) The period of a transitory breeze. (b) An interval of fair weather. (c) The loose or slack part of a rope; slack.

Slate noun [ Middle English slat , Old French esclat a shiver, splinter, French éclat , from Old French esclater to shiver, to chip, French éclater , from Old High German sliezen to tear, slit, split, from slīzan to slit, German schleissen . See Slit , transitive verb , and confer Eclat .]
1. (Min.) An argillaceous rock which readily splits into thin plates; argillite; argillaceous schist.

2. Any rock or stone having a slaty structure.

3. A prepared piece of such stone. Especially: (a) A thin, flat piece, for roofing or covering houses, etc. (b) A tablet for writing upon.

4. An artificial material, resembling slate, and used for the above purposes.

5. A thin plate of any material; a flake. [ Obsolete]

6. (Politics) A list of candidates, prepared for nomination or for election; a list of candidates, or a programme of action, devised beforehand. [ Cant, U.S.] Bartlett.

Adhesive slate (Min.) , a kind of slate of a greenish gray color, which absorbs water rapidly, and adheres to the tongue; whence the name. -- Aluminous slate , or Alum slate (Min.) , a kind of slate containing sulphate of alumina, -- used in the manufacture of alum. -- Bituminous slate (Min.) , a soft species of sectile clay slate, impregnated with bitumen. -- Hornblende slate (Min.) , a slaty rock, consisting essentially of hornblende and feldspar, useful for flagging on account of its toughness. -- Slate ax or axe , a mattock with an ax end, used in shaping slates for roofs, and making holes in them for the nails. -- Slate clay (Geol.) , an indurated clay, forming one of the alternating beds of the coal measures, consisting of an infusible compound of alumina and silica, and often used for making fire bricks. Tomlinson. -- Slate globe , a globe the surface of which is made of an artificial slatelike material. -- Slate pencil , a pencil of slate, or of soapstone, used for writing on a slate. -- Slate rocks (Min.) , rocks which split into thin laminæ, not necessarily parallel to the stratification; foliated rocks. -- Slate spar (Min.) , a variety of calcite of silvery white luster and of a slaty structure. -- Transparent slate , a plate of translucent material, as ground glass, upon which a copy of a picture, placed beneath it, can be made by tracing.

Slate transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Slated ; present participle & verbal noun Slating .]
1. To cover with slate, or with a substance resembling slate; as, to slate a roof; to slate a globe.

2. To register (as on a slate and subject to revision), for an appointment. [ Polit. Cant]

Slate transitive verb [ Confer Anglo-Saxon slǣting a privilege of hunting.] To set a dog upon; to bait; to slat. See 2d Slat , 3. [ Prov. Eng. & Scot.] [ Written also slete .] Ray.

Slate-color A dark bluish gray color.

Slate-gray adjective Of a dark gray, like slate.

Slater noun One who lays slates, or whose occupation is to slate buildings.

Slater noun (Zoology) Any terrestrial isopod crustacean of the genus Porcellio and allied genera; a sow bug.

Slating noun
1. The act of covering with slate, slates, or a substance resembling slate; the work of a slater.

2. Slates, collectively; also, material for slating.

Slatt noun [ See Slat a strip of board.] A slab of stone used as a veneer for coarse masonry. Knight.

Slatter intransitive verb [ English slat to throw or dash about.] To be careless, negligent, or aswkward, esp. with regard to dress and neatness; to be wasteful. Ray.

Slattern noun A woman who is negligent of her dress or house; one who is not neat and nice.

Slattern adjective Resembling a slattern; sluttish; slatterny. "The slattern air." Gay.

Slattern transitive verb To consume carelessly or wastefully; to waste; -- with away . [ R.] Chesterfield.

Slatternliness noun The quality or state of being slatternly; slovenliness; untidiness.

Slatternly adjective Resembling a slattern; sluttish; negligent; dirty. -- adverb In a slatternly manner.

Slatterpouch noun A dance or game played by boys, requiring active exercise. [ Obsolete] Gayton.

Slatting Slats, collectively.

Slatting noun The violent shaking or flapping of anything hanging loose in the wind, as of a sail, when being hauled down.

Slaty adjective [ From Slate .] Resembling slate; having the nature, appearance, or properties, of slate; composed of thin parallel plates, capable of being separated by splitting; as, a slaty color or texture.

Slaty cleavage (Min.) , cleavage, as of rocks, into thin leaves or plates, like those of slate; -- applied especially to those cases in which the planes of cleavage are not parallel to the planes of stratification. It is now believed to be caused by the compression which the strata have undergone. -- Slaty gneiss (Min.) , a variety of gneiss in which the scales of mica or crystals of hornblende, which are usually minute, form thin laminæ, rendering the rock easily cleavable.

Slaughter noun [ Middle English slautir , slaughter , slaghter , Icelandic slātr slain flesh, modified by Middle English slaught , slaht , slaughter, from Anglo-Saxon sleaht a stroke, blow; both from the root of E. slay. See Slay , transitive verb , and confer Onslaught .] The act of killing. Specifically: (a) The extensive, violent, bloody, or wanton destruction of life; carnage.

On war and mutual slaughter bent.

Milton.

(b) The act of killing cattle or other beasts for market.

Syn. -- Carnage; massacre; butchery; murder; havoc.

Slaughter transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Slaughtered ; present participle & verbal noun Slaughtering .]
1. To visit with great destruction of life; to kill; to slay in battle.

Your castle is surprised; your wife and babes
Savagely slaughtered .

Shak.

2. To butcher; to kill for the market, as beasts.

Slaughterer noun One who slaughters.

Slaughterhouse noun A house where beasts are butchered for the market.

Slaughterman noun ; plural Slaughtermen One employed in slaughtering. Shak.

Slaughterous adjective Destructive; murderous. Shak. M. Arnold. -- Slaugh"ter*ous*ly , adverb

Slav noun ; plural Slavs . [ A word originally meaning, intelligible, and used to contrast the people so called with foreigners who spoke languages unintelligible to the Slavs; akin to OSlav. slovo a word, slava fame, Sanskrit çru to hear. Confer Loud .] (Ethnol.) One of a race of people occupying a large part of Eastern and Northern Europe, including the Russians, Bulgarians, Roumanians, Servo-Croats, Slovenes, Poles, Czechs, Wends or Sorbs, Slovaks, etc. [ Written also Slave , and Sclav .]

Slave noun See Slav .

Slave noun [ Confer French esclave , Dutch slaaf , Danish slave , sclave , Swedish slaf , all from German sklave , Middle High German also slave , from the national name of the Slavonians, or Sclavonians (in Late Latin Slavi or Sclavi ), who were frequently made slaves by the Germans. See Slav .]
1. A person who is held in bondage to another; one who is wholly subject to the will of another; one who is held as a chattel; one who has no freedom of action, but whose person and services are wholly under the control of another.

thou our slave ,
Our captive, at the public mill our drudge?

Milton.

2. One who has lost the power of resistance; one who surrenders himself to any power whatever; as, a slave to passion, to lust, to strong drink, to ambition.

3. A drudge; one who labors like a slave.

4. An abject person; a wretch. Shak.

Slave ant (Zoology) , any species of ants which is captured and enslaved by another species, especially Formica fusca of Europe and America, which is commonly enslaved by Formica sanguinea . -- Slave catcher , one who attempted to catch and bring back a fugitive slave to his master. -- Slave coast , part of the western coast of Africa to which slaves were brought to be sold to foreigners. -- Slave driver , one who superintends slaves at their work; hence, figuratively, a cruel taskmaster. -- Slave hunt . (a) A search after persons in order to reduce them to slavery . Barth. (b) A search after fugitive slaves, often conducted with bloodhounds. -- Slave ship , a vessel employed in the slave trade or used for transporting slaves; a slaver. -- Slave trade , the business of dealing in slaves, especially of buying them for transportation from their homes to be sold elsewhere. -- Slave trader , one who traffics in slaves.

Syn. -- Bond servant; bondman; bondslave; captive; henchman; vassal; dependent; drudge. See Serf .

Slave intransitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Slaved ; present participle & verbal noun Slaving .] To drudge; to toil; to labor as a slave.

Slave transitive verb To enslave. Marston.