Definitions

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

  • transitive verb To kill violently.
  • transitive verb Slang To overwhelm, as with laughter or love.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The reed of a weavers' loom.
  • To strike; smite.
  • To strike so as to kill; put to death violently, by means of a weapon or otherwise; kill.
  • To destroy; put an end to; quench; spoil; ruin.
  • Synonyms Murder, etc. See kill.
  • To arrange (the warp-threads) in the loom-reed for weaving.

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

  • transitive verb To put to death with a weapon, or by violence; hence, to kill; to put an end to; to destroy.

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

  • verb now literary To kill, murder.
  • verb literary To eradicate or stamp out.
  • verb by extension, colloquial To defeat, overcome.
  • verb slang To delight or overwhelm, especially with laughter.

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

  • verb kill intentionally and with premeditation

Etymologies

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

[Middle English slen, slayen, from Old English slēan.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English sleen, from Old English slēan ("to strike, beat, smite, stamp, forge, sting, slay, kill, impact"), from Proto-Germanic *slahanan (“to fight, strike, kill”), from Proto-Indo-European *slak- (“to hit, throw”). Cognate with Dutch slaan ("to beat, hit, strike"), German schlagen ("to beat, hit, strike"), Swedish slå ("to knock, beat, strike"), Icelandic slá ("to strike"). Related to slaughter, onslaught.

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Examples

  • December 28th, 2007 at 5: 30 pm baedo says: wow. santa’s slay is really … um … how shall i say … at a loss really …

    CAN’T YOU GET ALONG WITH ANYONE? 2007

  • B&N says it's bowing to customers 'demands that it carry O.J. Simpson's roman à slay, which is sad enough, but at least the retailer says it will sell the book without actively marketing it, so perhaps we should be grateful for that small concession to taste. settlement of the Turcotte family's lawsuit against Augusten Burroughs

    Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch 2009

  • B&N says it's bowing to customers 'demands that it carry O.J. Simpson's roman à slay, which is sad enough, but at least the retailer says it will sell the book without actively marketing it, so perhaps we should be grateful for that small concession to taste. settlement of the Turcotte family's lawsuit against Augusten Burroughs

    Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch 2009

  • B&N says it's bowing to customers 'demands that it carry O.J. Simpson's roman à slay, which is sad enough, but at least the retailer says it will sell the book without actively marketing it, so perhaps we should be grateful for that small concession to taste. settlement of the Turcotte family's lawsuit against Augusten Burroughs

    Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch 2009

  • B&N says it's bowing to customers 'demands that it carry O.J. Simpson's roman à slay, which is sad enough, but at least the retailer says it will sell the book without actively marketing it, so perhaps we should be grateful for that small concession to taste. settlement of the Turcotte family's lawsuit against Augusten Burroughs

    Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch 2009

  • B&N says it's bowing to customers 'demands that it carry O.J. Simpson's roman à slay, which is sad enough, but at least the retailer says it will sell the book without actively marketing it, so perhaps we should be grateful for that small concession to taste. settlement of the Turcotte family's lawsuit against Augusten Burroughs

    Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch 2009

  • B&N says it's bowing to customers 'demands that it carry O.J. Simpson's roman à slay, which is sad enough, but at least the retailer says it will sell the book without actively marketing it, so perhaps we should be grateful for that small concession to taste. settlement of the Turcotte family's lawsuit against Augusten Burroughs

    Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch 2009

  • B&N says it's bowing to customers 'demands that it carry O.J. Simpson's roman à slay, which is sad enough, but at least the retailer says it will sell the book without actively marketing it, so perhaps we should be grateful for that small concession to taste. settlement of the Turcotte family's lawsuit against Augusten Burroughs

    Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch 2009

  • B&N says it's bowing to customers 'demands that it carry O.J. Simpson's roman à slay, which is sad enough, but at least the retailer says it will sell the book without actively marketing it, so perhaps we should be grateful for that small concession to taste. settlement of the Turcotte family's lawsuit against Augusten Burroughs

    Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch 2009

  • In the meantime, Specialized have certainly proven that the Globe Roll is indeed the perfect bike with which to "slay" an overpriced food run.

    Warming the Cockles: Living, Breathing, Shopping BikeSnobNYC 2010

Comments

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  • I abhor violent fabrics.

    September 11, 2008

  • Of course...

    September 12, 2008