Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The vitreous mass left as a residue by the smelting of metallic ore.
  • transitive & intransitive verb To change into or form slag.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In metal: To convert into slag: as, an excess of limestone used as a flux may to a greater or less extent slag the lining of a furnace.
  • To cake together as the result of chemical action at a heat lower than that of fusion.
  • To form a slag, or to cohere when heated so as to become a slag-like mass.
  • noun The earthy matter separated, in a more or less completely fused and vitrified condition, during the reduction of a metal from its ore.
  • noun The scoria of a volcano.
  • noun A hollow or depression of land.
  • noun In the puddling process for making wrought-iron, the slag which forms when, as a preliminary step not always taken, air is blown down upon the surface of a charge of melted cask iron in a specially constructed hearth. Silicon is the principal substance removed from the iron, and the slag consists mainly of ferrous silicate.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The dross, or recrement, of a metal; also, vitrified cinders.
  • noun The scoria of a volcano.
  • noun (Metal.) A product of smelting, containing, mostly as silicates, the substances not sought to be produced as matte or metal, and having a lower specific gravity than the latter; -- called also, esp. in iron smelting, cinder. The slag of iron blast furnaces is essentially silicate of calcium, magnesium, and aluminium; that of lead and copper smelting furnaces contains iron.
  • noun (Metal.) a furnace, or hearth, for extracting lead from slags or poor ore.
  • noun mineral wool. See under Mineral.
  • verb (Metal.) To form, or form into, a slag; to agglomerate when heated below the fusion point.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Waste material from a coal mine.
  • noun Scum that forms on the surface of molten metal.
  • noun Impurities formed and separated out when a metal is smelted from ore; vitrified cinders (Wikipedia).
  • noun Hard aggregate remaining as a residue from blast furnaces, sometimes used as a surfacing material.
  • noun Scoria associated with a volcano.
  • noun UK, pejorative, dated A coward.
  • noun UK, pejorative A contemptible person, a scumbag.
  • noun UK, pejorative A prostitute.
  • noun UK, Australia, New Zealand, slang, pejorative A woman (sometimes a man) who has loose morals relating to sex; a slut.
  • verb transitive To produce slag.
  • verb transitive, with "off" To talk badly about; to malign or denigrate (someone).
  • verb intransitive, Australia, slang To spit.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb convert into slag
  • noun the scum formed by oxidation at the surface of molten metals

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Low German slagge, from Middle Low German.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Swedish slagg, or Middle Low German slacke, whence German Schlacke; originally, perhaps, the splinters struck off from the metal by hammering; compare slay.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word slag.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • "Other students were then asked to look at the photographed faces and say how easy they reckoned the pictured individual might be. In a staggering 72 per cent of cases, they correctly guessed whether the person in the portrait was or was not a slag."

    The Register, Faces give away giveaways - psych profs' amazing claim, April 9, 2008

    April 10, 2008

  • ...whether the person was the scum formed by oxidization at the surface of molten metals?

    Dude.

    April 10, 2008

  • Yes. It's truly amazing that 72 percent of the time subjects can guess if a person is an oxidized metallic scum.

    April 10, 2008

  • a loose woman

    July 23, 2008