Adjacent Words

Slew definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SLEW, pret. of slay.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: (often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent; "a batch of letters"; "a deal of trouble"; "a lot of money"; "he made a mint on the stock market"; "see the rest of the winners in our huge passel of photos"; "it must have cost plenty"; "a slew of journalists"; "a wad of money" [syn: batch, deal, flock, good deal, great deal, hatful, heap, lot, mass, mess, mickle, mint, mountain, muckle, passel, peck, pile, plenty, pot, quite a little, raft, sight, slew, spate, stack, tidy sum, wad] v
1: turn sharply; change direction abruptly; "The car cut to the left at the intersection"; "The motorbike veered to the right" [syn: swerve, sheer, curve, trend, veer, slue, slew, cut]
2: move obliquely or sideways, usually in an uncontrolled manner; "the wheels skidded against the sidewalk" [syn: skid, slip, slue, slew, slide]

Merriam Webster's

I. past of slay II. variant of slough I 1b III. verb also slue Etymology: origin unknown Date: circa 1769 transitive verb 1. to turn (as a telescope or a ship's spar) about a fixed point that is usually the axis 2. to cause to skid ; veer <slew a car around a turn> intransitive verb 1. to turn, twist, or swing about ; pivot 2. skid IV. noun Etymology: perhaps from Irish slua army, host, throng, from Old Irish slúag; akin to Lithuanian slaugyti to tend Date: 1839 a large number <a slew of books>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

1. v. & n. (also slue) --v.tr. & intr. (often foll. by round) turn or swing forcibly or with effort out of the forward or ordinary position. --n. such a change of position. Etymology: 18th-c. Naut.: orig. unkn. 2. past of SLAY(1). 3. n. esp. US colloq. a large number or quantity. Etymology: Ir. sluagh

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Slew Slew (sl[=oo]), n. [See Slough a wet place.] A wet place; a river inlet. The praire round about is wet, at times almost marshy, especially at the borders of the great reedy slews. --T. Roosevelt.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Slay Slay, v. t. [imp. Slew; p. p. Slain; p. pr. & vb. n. Slaying.] [OE. slan, sl?n, sleen, slee, AS. sle['a]n to strike, beat, slay; akin to OFries. sl[=a], D. slaan, OS. & OHG. slahan, G. schlagen, Icel. sl[=a], Dan. slaae, Sw. sl?, Goth. slahan; perhaps akin to L. lacerare to tear to pieces, Gr. ????, E. lacerate. Cf. Slaughter, Sledge a hammer, Sley.] To put to death with a weapon, or by violence; hence, to kill; to put an end to; to destroy. With this sword then will I slay you both. --Chaucer. I will slay the last of them with the sword. --Amos ix. 1. I'll slay more gazers than the basilisk. --Shak. Syn: To kill; murder; slaughter; butcher.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Slew Slew, imp. of Slay.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Slew Slew, v. t. See Slue.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Slue Slue, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Slued; p. pr. & vb. n. Sluing.] [Prov. E. slew to turn round, Scot. to lean or incline to a side; cf. Icel. sn?a to turn, bend.] [Written also slew.] 1. (Naut.) To turn about a fixed point, usually the center or axis, as a spar or piece of timber; to turn; -- used also of any heavy body. 2. In general, to turn about; to twist; -- often used reflexively and followed by round. [Colloq.] They laughed, and slued themselves round. --Dickens.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(slews, slewing, slewed) 1. Slew is the past tense of slay. 2. If a vehicle slews or is slewed across a road, it slides across it. The bus slewed sideways... He slewed the car against the side of the building. VERB: V adv/prep, V n prep/adv 3. A slew of things is a large number of them. (mainly AM) There have been a whole slew of shooting incidents... N-COUNT: usu sing, usu N of n

Moby Thesaurus

batch, bunch, clump, cluster, considerable, copse, crop, deal, gobs, good deal, great deal, group, grouping, groupment, grove, hassock, heap, heaps, jillion, knot, lashings, loads, lot, lots, mess, million, mint, oodles, pack, peck, pile, piles, pot, quantities, quite a little, raft, rafts, scads, shock, sight, slews, spate, stack, stacks, stook, thicket, thousand, tidy sum, trillion, tuft, tussock, wad, wads, whole slew, wisp