slab

noun
/slæb/

Etymology

From Middle English sclabbe, slabbe, of uncertain origin; possibly from *slap, related to dialectal slappel (“portion, piece”), along with slape (“slippery”), sleip (“smooth piece of timber”), borrowed through Old Norse sleipr from Proto-Germanic *slaipaz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)leyb-. See also Norwegian sleip (“slippery”) and Icelandic sleipur.

  1. derived from *(s)leyb-
  2. derived from *slaipaz
  3. derived from sleipr
  4. inherited from sclabbe

Definitions

  1. A large, flat piece of solid material

    A large, flat piece of solid material; a solid object that is large and flat.

    • There were no windows in the inn. They were not required, since the interstices between the slabs suffered the wind, the rain, and the light of day to penetrate simultaneously.
    • Then there was the Mexican who sold big slabs of chewing taffy for five cents each. […] And many a day I made my entire lunch off of one of those slabs.
    • I was working in the lab late one night When my eyes beheld an eerie sight For my monster, from his slab, began to rise And suddenly, to my surprise He did the Mash He did the Monster Mash.
  2. A paving stone

    A paving stone; a flagstone.

  3. A carton containing 24 cans (chiefly of beer).

    • The Australians murder a few slabs of beer and the New Zealanders murder a few vowels.
    • The older man bought a slab of Coca-Cola at the counter and carried it out ahead of the younger man.
    • 2008, Diem Vo, Family Life, Alice Pung (editor), page 156, However, unlike in Ramsay Street, there were never any cups of tea or bickies served. Instead, each family unit came armed with a slab of beer.
  4. + 18 more definitions
    1. An outside piece taken from a log or timber when sawing it into boards, planks, etc.

    2. The slack part of a sail.

    3. A very large wave.

      • After being towed into a massive slab, Dorian dropped down the face and caught a rail, putting him in a near-impossible situation.
      • In August 2000 he successfully rode a slab of unfathomable power at Teahupo′o.
    4. The amount by which a cache can grow or shrink, used in memory allocation.

    5. Part of a tectonic plate that is being, or has been, subducted.

      • Being driven by the gravitational force, the subducting Pacific slab continues to sink down to the boundary between the upper and lower mantle […]
    6. A poured-concrete foundation for a building.

      • Next week they'll pour the slab that the shed will sit on.
    7. A region between two parallel lines in the Euclidean plane, or between two parallel…

      A region between two parallel lines in the Euclidean plane, or between two parallel planes in three-dimensional Euclidean space, or between two hyperplanes in higher dimensions.

    8. Any of the several portions or tiers in a tax rate plan.

      • Near-synonym: tax bracket
    9. A flat, sealed plastic case that encloses a flat collector's item, such as a coin or a…

      A flat, sealed plastic case that encloses a flat collector's item, such as a coin or a trading card.

    10. A large, luxury pre-1980 General Motors vehicle, particularly a Buick, Oldsmobile, or…

      A large, luxury pre-1980 General Motors vehicle, particularly a Buick, Oldsmobile, or Cadillac.

      • Video screens have also become a standard part of slab interiors.
    11. Ellipsis of slab avalanche.

    12. To make into a slab.

    13. To destroy (a structure) so completely as to leave only the foundation slab visible.

      • Multiple homes were slabbed by the monster tornado.
    14. Mud, sludge, or other viscous matter.

    15. Thick

      Thick; viscous.

      • Make the gruel thick and slab:
    16. A car that has been modified with equipment such as loudspeakers, lights, special paint,…

      A car that has been modified with equipment such as loudspeakers, lights, special paint, hydraulics, and other accessories.

      • Pull me over, try to check my slab
      • I'mma swang, I'mma swing my slab lean to the left
      • All three of them recognized who the Lexus'^([sic]) belonged to so he parked his slab and they cocked their guns.
    17. A bird, the wryneck.

    18. A sequence of 12 adjacent bits, serving as a byte in some computers.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at slab. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01slab02beer03fermented04drink05glass06crystal07pattern08decorative09tile

A definitional loop anchored at slab. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

9 hops · closes at slab

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA