Definitions

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

  • noun A thin broad piece cut from a larger object.
  • noun An often wedge-shaped piece cut from a larger, usually circular object.
  • noun A portion or share.
  • noun A knife with a broad, thin, flexible blade, used for cutting and serving food.
  • noun A similar implement for spreading printing ink.
  • noun The course of a ball that curves in the direction of the dominant hand of the player propelling it, as to the right of a right-handed player.
  • noun A stroke that causes a ball to follow such a course.
  • noun A ball propelled on such a course.
  • noun A stroke, as in tennis, in which the ball is struck with a downward motion with the open face of the racket in order to impart backspin.
  • intransitive verb To cut or divide into slices.
  • intransitive verb To cut from a larger piece.
  • intransitive verb To cut through or move through with an action like cutting.
  • intransitive verb To divide into portions or shares; parcel out.
  • intransitive verb To reduce or remove from a larger amount or entity.
  • intransitive verb Sports To hit (a ball) with a slice.
  • intransitive verb To make a cut with a cutting implement.
  • intransitive verb To move like a knife.
  • intransitive verb Sports To hit a ball with a slice.
  • idiom (any way/no matter how) No matter how you look at it; no matter how it is analyzed.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A thin broad piece cut off from something: as, a slice of bread or of bacon: often used figuratively.
  • noun A shiver; a splinter.
  • noun Something thin and broad.
  • noun In printing:
  • noun A small spade-shaped iron tool with which printing-ink is taken out of a tub and conveyed to an ink-trough or -fountain.
  • noun The sliding bottom of a slice-galley.
  • noun A bar used by whalers to strip fish with.
  • noun A tapering piece of plank driven between the timbers of a ship before planking. Also called slicer.
  • noun A wedge driven under the keel of a ship when launching.
  • noun A bar with a chisel or spear-headed end, used for stripping off the sheathing or planking of ships.
  • noun A utensil for turning over meat in the frying-pan and for similar purposes. The form is like that of a trowel, the blade being three or four inches wide, twice as long, and often pierced with holes. Also called turn-over.
  • noun A broad, thin knife, usually of silver, for dividing and serving fish at table. Also called fish-slice.
  • noun A bakers' shovel or peel.
  • noun A salver, platter, or tray.
  • In golf, to draw the face of the club across (the ball) from right to left in the act of hitting it, the result being that it will travel with a curve toward the right; or the reverse for a left-handed player. W. Park, Jr., Game of Golf, glossary.
  • To break with a bar. Bituminous coal, when burned, fuses and forms a solid mass which must be broken up in this manner.
  • In golf, to cause the ball, when struck with the club, to curve from left to right in the case of a right-handed player, or the reverse in the case of a left-handed player.
  • To cut into slices, or relatively broad, thin pieces: as, to slice bread, bacon, or an apple.
  • To remove in the form of a slice: sometimes with off or out: as, to slice off a piece of something.
  • To cut; divide.
  • [In the following passage the word is used interjectionally, with no clear meaning.
  • noun A mill or machine for slitting or dividing gems.
  • noun In golf, the side spin imparted to a ball which causes it to curve to the right in the case of a right-handed player, or the reverse in the case of a left-handed player.

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

  • noun A thin, broad piece cut off
  • noun obsolete, Cant, obsolete, Cant That which is thin and broad, like a slice.
  • noun obsolete, Cant, obsolete, Cant A broad, thin piece of plaster.
  • noun obsolete, Cant, Cant A salver, platter, or tray.

Etymologies

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

[Middle English sclice, splinter, from Old French esclice, from esclicier, to splinter, of Germanic origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English slice, esclice, from Old French esclice, esclis ("a piece split off"), deverbal of esclicer, esclicier ("to splinter, split up"), from Frankish *slitjan (“to split up”), from Proto-Germanic *slitjanan, from Proto-Germanic *slītanan (“to split, tear apart”), from Proto-Indo-European *slaid-, *sled- (“to rend, injure, crumble”). Akin to Old High German sliz, gisliz ("a tear, rip"), Old High German slīzan ("to tear"), Old English slītan ("to split up"). More at slite, slit.

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Examples

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  • Plural of slouse?

    June 21, 2008

  • Haha! So would the singular of splice be splouse?

    June 24, 2008

  • A hawk's or falcon's dropping which squirts at an angle other than vertical. --from the definitions.

    February 15, 2013