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slay

verb
/sleɪ/

Etymology

From Middle English sleen, slen, from Old English slēan (“to hit, punch, strike; to kill”), from Proto-West Germanic *slahan, from Proto-Germanic *slahaną (“to hit, strike; to kill”), from Proto-Indo-European *slak- (“to hit, strike, throw”). Cognates Cognate with Alemannic German schlaa (“to beat, hit”), Central Franconian schlage, schlon, schloon (“to beat, hit, strike”), Dutch and Low German slaan (“to beat, hit, strike”), German schlagen, schlahen, schlahn (“to beat, hit, strike”), Luxembourgish schloen (“to beat, defeat, hit”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish slå (“to beat, hit, strike”), Faroese sláa (“to beat, strike”), Icelandic slá (“to hit, strike”), Gothic 𐍃𐌻𐌰𐌷𐌰𐌽 (slahan, “to hit, smite, strike”). Related to slaughter, onslaught.

  1. derived from *slak-✻ — “to hit, strike, throw”
  2. inherited from *slahaną✻ — “to hit, strike; to kill”
  3. inherited from *slahan✻
  4. inherited from slēan — “to hit, punch, strike; to kill”
  5. inherited from sleen

Definitions

  1. To kill

    To kill; to murder.

    • The knight slew the dragon.
    • Our foes must all be slain.

  2. To eradicate or stamp out.

    • You must slay these thoughts.

  3. To defeat

    To defeat; to overcome (in a competition or contest).

    • The Yankees were actually slayed by two former Yankees because Rich Gossage pitched one scoreless inning in relief of Eckersley to notch his first victory.
  4. ›+ 8 more definitions

    1. To delight or overwhelm, especially with laughter.

      • Ha ha! You slay me!
      • He snapped his fingers contemptuously at the alarm clock. "I fear thee not, thou ticking tyrant." "You slay me," grinned Cedric.

    2. To amaze, stun, or otherwise incapacitate by excellence

      To amaze, stun, or otherwise incapacitate by excellence; to excel at something.

      • Your outfit slays!
      • Movie buffs will love this costume from Beetlejuice. And even if you don't have someone to double team this look with, each costume can easily slay on its own.

    3. To have sex with.

    4. That slays (in any sense).

    5. Something excellent, amazing, or fashionable.

      • Equally effervescent was EmRata [Emily Ratajkowski] in 2001 Versace; meanwhile Zendaya, clothed in a 1996 John Galliano for Givenchy gown that could rival Queen Victoria’s regal mourning robes, was a slay for the ages.

    6. Used to express approval or amazement.

    7. Alternative form of sley

    8. A surname.

The neighborhood

Derived

foreslay, hack-and-slay, reslay, slayable, slayage, slayee, slayer, slay queen, slay someone in the Spirit

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for slay. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

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