
slab | slab: n. slice, wedge, piece, hunk, chunk, tranche, Colloq Brit wodge: The keeper threw a large slab of meat into the lion''s cage.
slack | slack: adj. 1 remiss, careless, indolent, negligent, lax, lazy, idle, neglectful, delinquent, inattentive, otiose, dilatory, cunctatory, laggard, easygoing, slothful, sluggish, lethargic, shiftless, do-nothing, fain�ant, Colloq asleep at the switch or the wheel, asleep on the job: Production has fallen off because the workers are getting slack. 2 loose, flabby, flaccid, soft, limp, baggy, drooping, droopy, bagging, sagging, floppy: The flag hung down, slack in the still air. --v. 3 Often, slack or slacken off or up. a let go, let run, let loose, release, slacken, loose, loosen, relax, ease (out or off), let up (on): Slack off the stern line a bit. b slow (down or up), delay, reduce speed, tire, decline, decrease, diminish, moderate, abate, weaken: Barnes could not keep up his terrific pace and is beginning to slack off. Business has slackened off since Christmas. 4 neglect, shirk, Colloq Brit skive (off), US goof off, Chiefly military gold-brick, Taboo slang US fuck the dog: Don''t let the foreman find you slacking. --n. 5 lull, pause, inactivity, cut-back, lessening, reduction, abatement, drop-off, downturn, diminution, decline, fall-off, decrease, dwindling: How do you compensate for the slack in sales of ski equipment during the summer? 6 room, looseness, slackness, play, give: There''s too much slack in that mooring line.
slacker | slacker: n. shirker, loafer, idler, Slang Brit skiver, Military scrimshanker, US gold brick, goof-off: We have tight deadlines to meet, so there is no room for slackers on the team.
slake | slake: v. satisfy, quench, gratify, allay, assuage, ease, relieve: Nothing would slake my thirst better right now than a pint of ice-cold lager.
slam | slam: v. 1 shut, fling closed, bang: Gillian said that she hated encyclopedias, and slammed the door in the salesman''s face. 2 crash, smash, smack, dash, ram, bang, slap: Not looking where he was going, Newland slammed his car into a street lamp. 3 criticize, attack, vilify, pillory, run down, disparage, denigrate, denounce, put down, flay, pounce on or upon, Colloq shoot down, pan, Chiefly Brit slate: The critics slammed his play because of the way it portrayed women.
slander | slander: n. 1 defamation (of character), calumny, obloquy, misrepresentation, slur, vilification; libel: He spread lies about me and I am suing him for slander. --v. 2 defame, calumniate, disparage, slur, traduce, malign, smear, vilify, decry; libel: He must be stopped from slandering people and ruining their reputations.
slanderous | slanderous: adj. defamatory, calumnious, disparaging, smear, deprecatory, depreciative, discrediting, decrying; libellous: I understand that she made some slanderous remarks about your relationship with your ex-wife.
slant | slant: n. 1 angle, viewpoint, (point of) view, standpoint, approach, twist, idea, aspect, attitude: The article reflects a new slant on why governments are sometimes out of touch with the electorate. 2 bias, prejudice, partiality, one-sidedness, turn, bent: Carla''s reporting has a feminist slant which occasionally distorts the facts. 3 slope, incline, tilt, ramp, gradient, pitch, lean, leaning, deflection, angle, rake, cant, camber: A window sill normally has an outward slant. The road has a slant downwards to the right on right-hand curves. --v. 4 tilt, angle, incline, pitch, cant, slope, bend, lean, list, tip, bevel, shelve: The land slants downwards near the lake. Notice how his writing slants upwards at the ends of the lines. Cut the edges to slant outwards. 5 bend, distort, deviate, twist, warp, colour, weight, bias: The editor slanted the story to put the minister in a favourable light.
slap | slap: v. 1 smack, cuff, whack, rap; spank; Colloq clout, wallop: He said something extremely rude so she slapped him. 2 flap, slat, whip, beat, bat: Can''t you stop that blind from slapping in the wind? 3 fling, toss, splash, hurl, throw, sling: If you slap some paint on it, no one will know the difference. --n. 4 smack, blow, cuff, whack, rap, Colloq clout, wallop: He got a hard slap on the cheek for using foul language. 5 Often, slap in the face. reprimand, reproof, rebuff, criticism, censure, rebuke, shot, thrust, attack, put-down, insult, offence, smack in the eye: The speaker''s reference to Anne''s paper as ''trivial'' was a severe slap in the face. --adv. 6 slap on. exactly, directly, precisely, straight, point-blank, right, squarely, plumb, smack, bang: As usual, Barry''s comments were slap on the mark.
slash | slash: v. 1 cut, gash, hack, score, slit, knife, lacerate; wound; scar: The guide slashed away at the undergrowth with his machete. 2 lash, whip, scourge, flog, beat, horsewhip, flail, flagellate, flay, lambaste, thrash, beat: In those days, a convicted felon was beaten and slashed in front of a crowd in the market-place. 3 cut, reduce, decrease, drop, mark down, trim, lower: Prices were slashed to clear out last season''s styles. --n. 4 cut, gash, incision, slit, slice, gouge, rent, rip, score, laceration: There is a slash in each sleeve that reveals the colourful fabric underneath. 5 cut, reduction, decrease, mark-down: The department stores continued their price slashes to the end of January.
slattern | slattern: n. slut, tramp, sloven, trollop, hussy, wanton, whore, prostitute, harlot, streetwalker, lady of the evening, woman of ill repute, loose or fallen woman, trottoise, Colloq call-girl, pro, Slang tart, hooker, hustler, US roundheels, bimbo: His reputation will not be enhanced if he associates with slatterns.
slaughter | slaughter: n. 1 butchery, butchering, Rare abattage: Most of the cattle were sent for slaughter. 2 massacre, killing, bloodshed, blood bath, murder, homicide, manslaughter, carnage, extermination, execution, liquidation, slaying, blood-letting, butchery, pogrom, genocide, mass murder or execution or extermination, sacrifice, hecatomb: 1930 to 1945 saw the slaughter of millions in Europe and the Far East. --v. 3 butcher, kill, murder, slay, execute, exterminate, massacre, put to the sword, put to death, liquidate, destroy: How many more must be slaughtered before war is made obsolete? 4 defeat, beat, win (out) over, vanquish, overcome, overwhelm, smash, crush, thrash, destroy, rout, upset, trounce, Colloq clobber: Our school soccer team slaughtered the visitors 10--0.
slave | slave: n. 1 lackey or lacquey, scullion, serf, slave-girl, slaveling, odalisque or odalisk, bondservant, bondslave, bondsman or bondman, bondswoman or bondwoman, bondmaid, vassal, Derogatory chiefly Brit skivvy, Archaic esne, helot, hierodule, Colloq Brit slavey: In ancient times, captured peoples and those of lower social status were kept as slaves. 2 drudge, workhorse, hack, grind, toiler, labourer, Chiefly Brit fag, dogsbody, Colloq US gofer: Susan was a slave to her job for years, only to be sacked without a pension by the new owners. --v. 3 labour, toil, moil, grind, grub, drudge, sweat, burn the midnight oil, lucubrate, work one''s fingers to the bone, work like a Trojan or a horse, Brit skivvy: He was slaving over an essay that was due the following morning.
slaver� | slaver�: v. 1 drool, salivate, slobber, drivel, dribble, spit, Dialect slabber: The wolf opened its slavering jaws. --n. 2 drool, saliva, drivel, dribble, spit, spittle, Dialect slabber: The slaver formed on his lips as he raged on. 3 nonsense, drivel, rubbish, twaddle, piffle: The slaver spewed forth by the critics set her teeth on edge.
slaver� | slaver�: n. 1 slave ship, slave-trader: Conditions were so bad aboard the slavers that many of the poor souls died before reaching their destination. 2 blackbirder, slave-trader; White slaver, pimp, panderer: He was ashamed that his grandfather had been a South Sea slaver.
slavery | slavery: n. 1 enslavement, bondage, thraldom, thrall, enthralment, servitude, serfdom, vassalage, yoke; subjugation, captivity, Historical US peculiar institution: All of those ancient cultures that we venerate practised slavery. 2 slave-trade, blackbirding: No one ever mentions that the family fortune had been made from slavery. 3 toil, moil, drudgery, travail, grind, strain, (hard) labour: She remembered the years of slavery she had spent at the kitchen sink.
sleazy | sleazy: adj. 1 unsubstantial or insubstantial, flimsy, slight, shabby, poor, gimcrack, jerry-built, tawdry, cheap, tatty, ramshackle, rickety, slipshod, Colloq US chintzy: Her garish dress was made from some sleazy synthetic material. 2 disreputable, low-class, low-grade, squalid, dirty, base, seedy, sordid, contemptible, trashy, run-down, mean, cheap, Colloq crummy, slummy, Slang crappy, cheesy: He was lying low in a sleazy hotel while the police searched for him.
sleek | sleek: adj. 1 smooth, slick, velvety, lustrous, shiny, shining, glossy, silky, silken: The seals'' sleek fur glistened in the sunlight. 2 graceful, trim, streamlined: For her birthday Edmund gave her a sleek convertible. 3 suave, unctuous, slimy, fawning, oily, specious, hypocritical, Chiefly Brit smarmy: His explanations sounded plausible enough, but we soon found out what a sleek rogue he really was.
sleep | sleep: v. 1 doze, (take a) nap, catnap, rest, repose, slumber, drowse, drop or nod off, be in the land of Nod, be in the arms of Morpheus, snore, Colloq snooze, saw wood, catch or log a few zees (Z''s), take or have a zizz, catch forty winks: I was so tired, I slept for a full ten hours. --n. 2 nap, doze, slumber, rest, siesta, Colloq forty winks, snooze, zizz, beauty sleep: As she grew older, she found she needed less sleep.
sleepless | sleepless: adj. 1 restless, wakeful, insomniac, disturbed: Your mother and I spent a sleepless night worrying about you. 2 alert, watchful, vigilant, unsleeping: Mark''s wife kept a sleepless vigil at his bedside.
sleepwalking | sleepwalking: n. 1 noctambulism, somnambulism, noctambulation, somnambulation: Because of his sleepwalking, he had to be strapped in at night. --adj. 2 noctambulant, somnambulant: Proper drugs will control her sleepwalking activities.
sleepy | sleepy: adj. 1 drowsy, somnolent, tired, nodding, dozy, lethargic, torpid, slumberous, sluggish, oscitant; weary, fatigued, exhausted, Colloq dead on one''s feet, (knocked) out, beat, US and Canadian pooped: All that exercise has made me sleepy. 2 boring, inactive, dull, quiet, soporific, slow, sluggish: He grew up in a sleepy little village in the Outer Hebrides.
slender | slender: adj. 1 slim, lean, willowy, sylphlike, svelte, lissom or lissome, lithe, graceful, snake-hipped, thin, spare, slight, lanky: By exercising regularly, she has retained her slender figure. 2 slim, narrow, slight, poor, unlikely, small, little, scanty, remote, meagre, weak, feeble: Prospects for a quick recovery of the stock market are slender. 3 slim, slight, little, scanty, inadequate, insufficient, insignificant, trifling: The evidence against the defendant was too slender for a conviction.
sleuth | sleuth: n. detective, (private) detective, (private) investigator, US P.I., Colloq private eye, Sherlock, snoop, Brit tec or ''tec, US hawkshaw, Slang US dick, shamus, US and Canadian gumshoe: Dissatisfied with the progress of the police, we hired a private sleuth to investigate the theft.
slice | slice: n. 1 slab, piece, rasher, collop, shaving, layer, Cookery scallop, escalope, scaloppine (pl. of scaloppina) or scaloppini (pl.): May I have another slice of ham? 2 portion, piece, part, wedge, share, sliver, helping: He wants to make certain he gets his slice of the pie. 3 spatula; slicer: The Cabots gave us a silver fish slice for a wedding present. --v. 4 cut, carve, divide: They watched their mother slicing bread for sandwiches.
slick | slick: adj. 1 smooth, sleek, glossy, silky, silken, shiny, shining, glassy, slippery: His slick hair looked as if it had been greased. 2 smooth, urbane, suave, smooth-spoken, glib, smug, plausible; sycophantic, unctuous, Colloq smarmy: Thomas was a slick operator and managed to worm his way into a position of power. 3 smooth, clever, skilful, adroit, dexterous, professional, ingenious, imaginative, inventive, creative, Colloq neat: The performance was slick and well-rehearsed. 4 superficial, shallow, meretricious, specious, glib: They have made a lot of money publishing slick magazines for the yuppy market. --v. 5 Often, slick down. smooth, plaster down, grease, oil: He likes his hair slicked down to look like Valentino''s.
slicker | slicker: n. 1 confidence man or woman, cheat, swindler, mountebank, Colloq con man, city slicker: That slicker she met in Paris tricked Harriet out of a lot of money before he disappeared. 2 oilskin (raincoat): Best wear your slicker if you''re going out in this storm, James.
slide | slide: v. 1 glide, slip; coast, skim, glissade, skate, plane, skid, toboggan, slither: The drawer slid smoothly out on its runners. Terry came sliding down the icy hill, arms and legs flailing. 2 creep, steal, slip, slink, move: My contact slid into the seat beside me and slipped me a note. 3 decline, decrease, drop, fall: Shares slid to an all-time low on this morning''s market. 4 let slide. forget, ignore, neglect, gloss or pass over, pay no heed or mind (to): When Mr Bartlett borrowed my lawnmower, I let the matter slide till he began to think of it as his own, and offered to lend it to me! --n. 5 landslide, earth-slip, avalanche, mud-slide: A dozen houses were destroyed in the slides caused by the recent torrential rains.
slight | slight: adj. 1 small, little, minor, negligible, unlikely, insignificant, inconsequential: There is always a slight chance that you might be wrong, you know. 2 trifling, tiny, slender, minute, infinitesimal; trace, perceptible: He didn''t attach the slightest importance to the rumours that were going round. You''d best wash it again, as there is still a slight odour of garlic. 3 small, short, petite, thin, slim, slender, delicate, diminutive, tiny, miniature, bantam, wee, pocket, pocket-sized, US vest-pocket, Colloq pint-sized: Charlotte''s slight build seems totally unaffected by the amount she eats. 4 insubstantial or unsubstantial, weak, feeble, delicate, dainty, frail, unstable, fragile, flimsy, lightly made or built, precarious, inadequate, rickety, insecure: This table is too slight to support the computer and the printer. His arguments were far too slight to carry conviction. --v. 5 disregard, ignore, disdain, scorn, snub, rebuff, cut, disrespect, cold-shoulder: He thought she had slighted him deliberately at the dance. 6 insult, offend, affront, mortify, diminish, minimize, depreciate, disparage: Siobhan felt slighted by Harry''s inattention. --n. 7 insult, affront, slur, indignity, outrage, offence, disrespect: It is hard to understand why she tolerates his persistent slights. 8 inattention, neglect, disregard, indifference, snub, cold shoulder, coldness, ill-treatment: Perhaps she misinterprets his obsessive occupation in his work as a slight to her.
slightly | slightly: adv. a little, somewhat, to a certain or slight or minor extent or degree or measure, marginally: Yes, I do feel slightly better, thank you.
slim | slim: adj. 1 See slender, 1, above. 2 See slender, 2, 3, above. --v. 3 reduce, lose or shed weight, diet, Chiefly US slenderize: I really must slim if I am to fit into my summer clothes.
slimy | slimy: adj. 1 oozy, slippery, mucky, squashy, squishy, viscous, sticky, gluey, mucilaginous, uliginous, glutinous, mucous, clammy, mushy, US squushy or squooshy, Colloq gooey, gunky, US gloppy: He had cleverly buried the bag of diamonds in a mass of slimy waste where no one would want to look. 2 slippery, unctuous, obsequious, sycophantic, toadying, servile, creeping, grovelling, abject, Colloq smarmy: I don''t mind his trying to sell me insurance, but why does he have to be so slimy about it?
sling | sling: v. 1 toss, throw, cast, propel, hurl, shy, fling, fire, shoot, pitch, let fly, launch, heave, lob, Colloq chuck: He slung his briefcase onto the desk and flopped into a chair. --n. 2 slingshot, catapult, trebuchet or trebucket: It is said that David slew Goliath with a stone from his sling. 3 support, strap, band; belt: The doctor ordered him to keep his sprained arm in a sling for a few days. The military rifles are supplied with leather slings.
slink | slink: v. sneak, creep, steal, prowl, skulk: The dog slunk out of the room with its tail between its legs.
slip� | slip�: v. 1 slide, skid, glide, slither: Waxing the runners helps the sleigh slip along more easily. 2 stumble, lose one''s footing or balance, miss one''s footing, trip; fall, tumble: Mother slipped on the ice but luckily didn''t fall down. 3 Often, slip up. err, blunder, make a mistake, miscalculate, go wrong, botch (up), Slang screw up: He slipped up again by failing to give you your telephone messages. 4 let slip. reveal, divulge, blurt out, leak, let out, disclose, expose, Colloq come out with, blab: He accidentally let slip the news that you were back in town. 5 slip away or by. pass, elapse, vanish, go by: The hours just slipped away when I was with Irena. 6 slip away or off or out. escape, disappear, leave, vanish, steal, go or run away or off or out, break away, get away, give (someone) the slip; sneak away or off or out: After the speech, he slipped away before we could interview him. 7 slip in. enter, get in, sneak in; put in: A field mouse slipped in past the wire netting. I managed to slip in my suggestion before the meeting was adjourned. --n. 8 blunder, error, mistake, fault, oversight, slip of the tongue or pen, inadvertence, indiscretion, impropriety, transgression, peccadillo, faux pas, Colloq slip-up, Chiefly US blooper, Slang Brit boob, bloomer: She made so many slips in the letter that she had to retype it.
slip� | slip�: n. 1 piece, scrap, strip, sliver; paper, note, chit, permit, permission, pass, document: I''ll put my phone number on this slip of paper. To go on the outing, each child will have to bring in a slip signed by a parent. 2 shoot, scion, cutting, sprig, twig, sprout, runner, offshoot: After the slip is inserted, the branch must be bandaged up firmly.
slippery | slippery: adj. 1 slick, sleek, slimy, icy, glassy, smooth, greasy, oily, lubricated, Colloq skiddy: Be careful! Those stairs can be slippery when they''re wet. 2 evasive, devious, shifty, unreliable, undependable, questionable, untrustworthy, dishonest, treacherous, disloyal, perfidious, slick, crafty, sly, foxy, cunning, tricky, sneaky, false, reptilian, faithless, Colloq shady: I have dealt with some very slippery characters over the years, but this one is downright evil.
slipshod | slipshod: adj. careless, slovenly, slapdash, haphazard, messy, untidy, disorganized, lax, unorganized, Colloq sloppy: We refused to pay the bill because of the slipshod way they did the repairs.
slit | slit: v. 1 split, cut, slash, gash, knife, slice: The bark of the log is first slit OBopen, then carefully peeled back. --n. 2 split, cut, gash, incision, fissure, groove, slash, cleft, aperture, opening: Off-stage, the rest of the actors were watching the audience through a slit in the curtain.
slither | slither: v. slide, worm, snake, slip, slink, glide, skitter, creep, crawl: After regarding me for a moment, the cobra turned and slithered away.
sliver | sliver: n. fragment, piece, shard, shred, splinter, slip, shaving, paring, flake, chip, bit, scrap, snippet, snip: Two weeks later, we were still finding tiny slivers of glass from the broken vase.
slob | slob: n. oaf, boor, pig, lout, churl, yahoo, Slang Brit yob, yobbo, Chiefly US galoot or galloot, Slobbovian: He was a complete slob - he never tidied his room, and hardly ever washed.
slogan | slogan: n. war cry, battle-cry, rallying cry, catchword, watchword; motto: The magazine''s slogan was ''If you love words, you''ll love Word ''.
slope | slope: v. 1 incline, decline, ascend, descend, rise, fall, dip, sink, drop (off), angle, slant, pitch, tilt, tip: The lawn slopes downwards from the house, then upwards towards that grove of trees. --n. 2 incline, decline, ascent, descent, acclivity, declivity, rise, fall, ramp, dip, sink, drop, angle, slant, pitch, tilt, rake, tip, camber, cant, grade, bevel, hill, bank, mount, gradient, US grade, upgrade, downgrade: Sheep can be seen grazing on the grassy slopes.
sloppy | sloppy: adj. 1 messy, dirty, slovenly, careless, slipshod, untidy, disordered, disorderly; draggle-tailed, bedraggled, dishevelled, unkempt, dowdy, frumpish, shabby, scruffy, Colloq US grungy: She is certainly a sloppy housekeeper. John''s teacher complained about his sloppy work. 2 wet, slushy, watery, soggy, soppy, sopping, sodden, sloshy, muddy, rainy: The roads were sloppy after all the rain. You''re lucky you don''t have to go out in this sloppy weather. 3 sentimental, gushy, gushing, mawkish, maudlin, mushy, over-emotional, Colloq slushy, Brit wet, soppy: She starts to cry whenever she watches a sloppy film on TV.
slot | slot: n. 1 groove, fissure, notch, slit, opening, hollow, depression, channel, sulcus: Each of these pieces fits into its own slot. Drop a coin in the slot and watch what happens. 2 opening, position, vacancy, job, place, assignment, niche, space, spot, pigeon-hole: We filled that slot in the sales department. They scheduled the new programme into the half-hour slot after the six o''clock news. --v. 3 groove, fissure, notch, slit, hollow out: We slotted the stanchions to accommodate the shelf brackets. 4 assign, schedule, place, position, pigeon-hole, fit: Can we slot this interview into the documentary on China?
sloth | sloth: n. idleness, laziness, indolence, slothfulness, inertia, apathy, indifference, accidie, torpor, faineance, pococurantism, torpidity, sluggishness, languor, languidness, lethargy, phlegm, Rare hebetude: The maharajahs lived a life of sloth and luxury at the expense of their poverty-stricken subjects.
slothful | slothful: adj. idle, lazy, indolent, apathetic, indifferent, torpid, inert, pococurante, slack, lax, shiftless, fain�ant, inactive, do-nothing, sluggish, sluggard(ly), slow, laggard, languorous, languid, lethargic, lackadaisical, phlegmatic, hebetudinous: One cannot pursue a slothful attitude and expect to get anywhere in life.
slouch | slouch: v. 1 droop, sag, stoop, loll, slump, hunch: Sit up straight and stop slouching. --n. 2 stoop, sag, droop, slump, hunch: He seems to have developed a slouch from the burden of his responsibilities. 3 Usually, no slouch. sloven, loafer, sluggard, laggard, loafer, idler, malingerer, lazybones: Nellie is certainly no slouch when it comes to exercising to keep fit.
slow | slow: adj. 1 lagging, laggard, dawdling, sluggish, sluggard(ly), slow-moving, leaden, ponderous, unhurried, plodding, snail-like, tortoise-like, torpid, leaden-footed, creeping, crawling; deliberate, slow-paced, leisurely, gradual, easy, relaxed, lax, lackadaisical, lazy, US lallygagging or lollygagging: They walked at a slow pace back to the house. Philip has become a little slower in his old age. 2 gradual, progressive, moderate, perceptible, almost imperceptible, measurable: The church elders have noted a slow decline in moral standards. 3 unhurried, slow-moving, slow-paced: The slow funeral cortege crept through the streets. 4 behindhand, unpunctual: I missed the train because my watch is five minutes slow. 5 late, tardy, behindhand, dilatory, delayed, unpunctual: You were so slow in getting here that everyone has gone. 6 slack, inactive, quiet, sluggish, unproductive: Business is always a bit slow after the holidays. 7 dense, dull, slow-witted, dull-witted, obtuse, backward, bovine, dim, dim-witted, stupid, unresponsive, blockish, cloddish, unintelligent, doltish, simple, stolid, unimaginative, Boeotian, Colloq slow on the uptake, thick, dumb: I''m afraid I''m a bit slow when it comes to particle physics. 8 conservative, unprogressive, old-fashioned, out of date, backward, old-fogyish or old-fogeyish, behind the times, Colloq square, not with it, past it, US out of it: The council has been rather slow in realizing the needs of the community. 9 boring, dull, tiresome, ennuyant, tedious, dead, sleepy, somnolent, torpid, soporific, wearisome, dry-as-dust, uninteresting, monotonous, tame, uneventful, humdrum, Colloq ho-hum, dead, Brit dead-and-alive: This town becomes really slow in the autumn, till the tourists reappear in the spring. 10 reluctant, not quick, unwilling, hesitant, disinclined, averse, loath or loth, indisposed: Even when provoked, Cassie tends to be slow to anger. --adv. 11 slowly, unhurriedly, cautiously, carefully, circumspectly: He failed his test because he drove too slow. 12 behindhand, tardily, late, unpunctually: All the trains seem to be running a bit slow tonight. 13 slowly, easy, leisurely, easily: They told him to take things slower or he''d have another heart attack. --v. 14 Often, slow down or up. slack or slacken off, reduce speed, hold back, put on the brakes, take it easy: You''d better slow down before you come to Deadman''s Hill. 15 relax, take it easy, Colloq ease up: The doctor suggested that at my age I ought to slow down a little.
sludge | sludge: n. muck, mire, ooze, mud, slime, dregs, silt, residue, precipitate, Colloq goo: The mechanic said that there was a lot of sludge in the engine.
sluggishness | sluggishness: n. sloth, laziness, slothfulness, languor, lassitude, lethargy, languidness, laggardness, torpor, phlegm, lifelessness, stagnation, shiftlessness, pococurantism, faineance, accidie, Rare hebetude: A few days'' golfing in Scotland will help to shake off the sluggishness of your Caribbean holiday.
slum | slum: n. Often, slums. ghetto, warren, shanty town, US skid row or Skid Road: Many very famous men emerged from the slums of the Lower East Side in New York.
slump | slump: n. 1 dip, trough, depreciation, decline, downturn, downslide, recession, depression, falling-off, fall-off, fall, drop, plunge, descent, crash, collapse, failure; nosedive, tailspin: A slump in the housing market was one of the early signs of the impending recession. The market went into a slump this morning from which it barely recovered before closing. --v. 2 decline, slip, recede, fall (off), drop, plunge, descend, sink, crash, collapse, dive, plummet, take or go into a nosedive or tailspin: Prices on the stock market slumped following announcement of a rise in interest rates. 3 See slouch, 1, above.
slur | slur: n. 1 smear, insult, calumny, aspersion, affront, stigma, stain, blot, spot, (black) mark, discredit, insinuation, innuendo, imputation, slander, libel, slight, Colloq put-down: She resents any slur on her husband''s character. --v. 2 mumble, misarticulate, garble, stutter, lisp: Some people nowadays slur their speech so badly that one can hardly understand them. 3 slur over. gloss over, pass over, disregard, give short shrift to, ignore: The eulogies at the memorial service slurred over his faults and focused on his accomplishments.
sly | sly: adj. 1 cunning, artful, crafty, clever, wily, guileful, underhand(ed), deceitful, treacherous, foxy, scheming, plotting, designing, conniving, furtive, shrewd, sneaky, stealthy, insidious, devious, disingenuous, tricky, shifty, sharp, canny, Colloq shady: It was devilishly sly of him to manoeuvre you into paying for his party. 2 impish, elfish, roguish, mischievous, puckish, devilish, scampish, naughty, arch, waggish: Even as he was flirting with Allison he was giving Antonia sly, conspiratorial winks. --n. 3 on the sly. slyly or slily, quietly, surreptitiously, covertly, stealthily, furtively, sneakily, underhandedly, clandestinely, Colloq on the q.t. or Q.T., on the side: Although her parents had forbidden her to see him again, Antonia continued to meet Kevin on the sly.
