slag

Borrowed from Middle Low German slagge, slaggen (“slag, dross”), from Old Saxon *slaggo, from Proto-West Germanic *slaggō, from Proto-Germanic *slaggô, from Proto-Germanic *slagōną (“to strike”) + *-gô (diminutive suffix). Compare Middle Low German slāgen (“to strike”), since originally the splinters struck off from the metal by hammering, from *slagōn, from Proto-West Germanic *slagōn. Compare also Old Saxon slegi, from Proto-West Germanic *slagi.

See also Dutch slak, German Schlacke, Swedish slagg; also compare English slay.

• IPA^(key): /slæɡ/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æɡ

slag (countable and uncountable, plural slags)

1. Waste material from a mine.
   • 2011, Vivienne Dockerty, A Woman Undefeated, page 54:

     After the big village, the scenery had returned to grass and woodland, but this had now given way to ugly mounds of discarded slag. Beyond the slag was a colliery with its machinery and smoking chimney, making the whole area look grim and austere.

2. Scum that forms on the surface of molten metal.
   • 2006, Melisa W. Lai, Michele Burns Ewald, Chapter 95: Silver, Martin J. Wonsiewicz, Karen G. Edmonson, Peter J. Boyle (editors), Goldfrank′s Toxicologic Emergencies, 8th Edition, page 1358,

     In Asia Minor and on islands in the Aegean Sea, dumps of slag (scum formed by molten metal surface oxidation) demonstrate that silver was being separated from lead as early as 5000 BC.

   • 2009, John Hoerr, Monongahela Dusk, page 255:

     He leans out over the track and skims slag off the top of the boiling steel, risking what is called “catching a flyer,” which occurs when hot metal explodes out of the mold, spraying everyone in the vicinity.

3. Impurities formed and separated out when a metal is smelted from ore; vitrified cinders.
   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion‎:

     Buried within the Mediterranean littoral are some seventy to ninety million tons of slag from ancient smelting, about a third of it concentrated in Iberia. This ceaseless industrial fueling caused the deforestation of an estimated fifty to seventy million acres of woodlands.

   • 2008, Barbara S. Ottaway, Ben Roberts, “The Emergence of Metalworking”, in Andrew Jones, editor, Prehistoric Europe: Theory and Practice, page 207:

     Consequently, mounds of large ‘cakes’ of slag are often found near the smelting sites of the Late Bronze Age, as for example at Ramsau in Austria (Doonan et al. 1996).

   Synonyms: dross, recrement, scoria

4. Hard aggregate remaining as a residue from blast furnaces, sometimes used as a surfacing material.
   • 2006, Jan R. Prusinski, “44: Slag as a Cementitious Material”, in Joseph F. Lamond, James H. Pielert, editors, Significance of Tests and Properties of Concrete and Concrete-Making Materials, page 517:

     During blast furnace operations, the plant operator pays careful attention to the slag chemistry (both composition and variability) as slag behavior is a major consideration in ensuring the quality of hot metal (molten iron).

   • 2010, Yuri N. Toulouevski, Ilyaz Y. Zinurov, Innovation in Electric Arc Furnaces, Springer, page 16:

     All these properties are determined by slag composition and its temperature. In basic slags, foaming ability increases as SiO₂ concentration grows.

5. Scoria associated with a volcano.
6. (UK, Ireland, slang, derogatory) A prostitute or promiscuous woman; a slut.
   • 1984, Tristan Jones, Heart of Oak, 1997, paperback edition, page 260,

     We never talked about that, of course; we talked about how we could find a woman in the Dilly, and if the Yanks had taken them all, how we could always resort to the peroxided older slags who hung out around the side doors to Waterloo station and did knee tremblers for the Yanks.

   • 1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 252:

     Which grotesque auld hing-oot will the shrivelled post-menopausal slag want tae shaft? Stay tuned.

   • 2002, Josephine Cox, The Woman Who Left, 2012, ebook, unnumbered page,

     ‘Slag! Wait till I tell Jacob what we′ve been doing – and I will, you mark my words! He′ll want nowt to do with you then, will he, eh? He′ll see you for what you really are. A cheap and nasty little bitch!’

   • 2008, Ashley Lister, Swingers - Female Confidential, page 31:

     ‘ […] He was a lovely man but, when I told him I wanted to continue swinging, he freaked out and called me a slag.’

   • 2010, The Coast‎, Halifax, Canada:

     ‘ […] To the lady that came in to my coffee shop today and ripped on me and my fellow employees for being too slow: eat shit, you miserable slag!’

   • 2016 December 3, Millie B (lyrics and music), “Soph Aspin Send”, performed by Millie B:

     Soph, yeah, you can't murk me / You're a slag, riddled with STDs

7. (UK, Ireland, derogatory, dated) A coward.
8. (UK, Ireland, chiefly Cockney, derogatory) A contemptible person, a scumbag.
   • 1990, Hanif Kureishi, The Buddha of Suburbia, London, Boston: Faber and Faber, →ISBN, page 207:

     The writers took it for granted that England, with its working class composed of slags, purple-nosed losers, and animals fed on pinball, pornography and junk-food, was disintegrating into terminal class-struggle.

   • 1996, Sarah Kane, Phaedra′s Love, Scene 8, 2001, Sarah Kane: Complete Plays, page 100,

     Kill him. Kill the royal slag.

   • 2012, Danny Dyer, tweet, quoted by Alexis Petridis, "Danny Dyer: why them 9/11 slags are freaking his nut", The Guardian

     Can't believe it's been nearly 11 years since them slags smashed into the twin towers

• (woman with loose sexual morals): see Thesaurus:promiscuous woman

• clinker

slag (third-person singular simple present slags, present participle slagging, simple past and past participle slagged)

1. (transitive) To produce slag.
2. (intransitive) To become slag; to agglomerate when heated below the fusion point.
3. (transitive) To reduce to slag.
4. (transitive, slang) To talk badly about; to malign or denigrate (someone).

   Synonym: slag off

   • 2010, Courtenay Young, Help Yourself Towards Mental Health, page 344:

     If you slag off the other person, then—to the extent that your child identifies with that person as their parent—you are slagging off a part of them.

   • 2011, John Davies, Slings and Arrows, page 109:

     Rather than wait for her to start slagging my mother, I would disappear for a couple of days and inevitably, because I was getting no love at home, I began to stray once again.

5. (transitive, Ireland, slang) To make fun of; to take the piss (tease, ridicule or mock).
6. (intransitive, Australia, slang) To spit.

• “slag”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “slag”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

• GALS, Glas, LGAs, gals, lags

From Old Norse slag, slagr from Proto-Germanic *slagą, *slagiz, cognate with German Schlag.

• IPA^(key): /slaːˀɣ/, [ˈsl̥æˀj], [ˈsl̥æˀ], (in the sense “game” and some fixed expressions) IPA^(key): /slaɣ/, [ˈsl̥ɑw]

slag n (singular definite slaget, plural indefinite slag)

1. A hit, punch
2. A beat
3. A battle (between two armies or, metaphorically two competing parties)
4. A game.

• “slag” in Den Danske Ordbog

From Middle Dutch slach, from Old Dutch slag, from Proto-West Germanic *slagi, from Proto-Germanic *slagiz.

• IPA^(key): /slɑx/

• audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: slag
• Rhymes: -ɑx

slag m (plural slagen, diminutive slagje n)

1. A blow, knock, strike

   Met een harde slag op de deur probeerde hij binnen te komen.

   He tried to get in by hitting the door with a hard blow.

   Een plotselinge slag op mijn hoofd deed me duizelig voelen.

   A sudden blow to my head made me feel dizzy.

2. A stroke, limb movement; a style of movement, notably style of swimming

   Hij zwom met een soepele slag door het water.

   He swam with a smooth stroke through the water.

   De zwemmer oefende verschillende technieken van slagen om zijn snelheid te verbeteren.

   The swimmer practiced various swimming strokes to improve his speed.

3. A twist, turn

   Met een snelle slag van zijn hand veranderde hij de richting van de bal.

   With a quick turn of his hand, he changed the direction of the ball.

   Ze gaf een laatste slag aan de knop om de machine uit te schakelen.

   She gave a final twist to the knob to turn off the machine.

4. A beat, pulsation

   De muziek had een opzwepende slag die iedereen aan het dansen kreeg.

   The music had an infectious beat that got everyone dancing.

   Zijn hart slaat met een regelmatige slag in een rustige cadans.

   His heart beats with a regular pulse in a calm rhythm.

5. A stroke, blow, hit, physical impact

   Hij gaf een stevige slag op de bal, waardoor deze ver weg vloog.

   He delivered a powerful stroke to the ball, sending it far away.

   De auto kreeg een flinke slag toen hij tegen de boom botste.

   The car received a strong blow when it collided with the tree.

6. A count, occurrence; the striking of a clock

   Op de laatste slag van de klok begon het vuurwerk.

   The fireworks started on the last strike of the clock.

   Het is nu acht uur, dat kun je horen aan de acht slagen van de klok.

   It's eight o'clock now, you can hear it in the eight chimes of the clock.

7. A battle, violent confrontation

   Tijdens de oorlog vonden er hevige slagen plaats in de loopgraven.

   Fierce battles took place in the trenches during the war.

   De twee rivaliserende bendes kwamen in een gewelddadige slag terecht.

   The two rival gangs engaged in a violent confrontation.

8. (ball sports) A strike, hit

   Antonym: wijd

   Hij gaf de bal een harde slag met de knuppel en raakte een homerun.

   He gave the ball a powerful hit with the bat and hit a home run.

   De tennisser gaf een perfecte slag en sloeg de bal recht over het net.

   The tennis player executed a perfect stroke and hit the ball right over the net.

9. A strike, fast move

   Met een snelle slag van zijn zwaard versloeg hij zijn tegenstander.

   With a swift strike of his sword, he defeated his opponent.

   De bokser gaf een reeks snelle slagen om zijn tegenstander te ontwijken.

   The boxer delivered a series of quick blows to evade his opponent.

• Negerhollands: slaa

slag n (plural slagen, diminutive slagje n)

1. A kind, type, sort.
2. A parcel, plot, premise (stretch of land).

• glas

From Old Norse slag, from Proto-Germanic *slagiz (“hit, blow”).

• IPA^(key): /slɛaː/

slag n (genitive singular slags, plural sløg)

1. A hit; punch.
2. (medicine) A cardiac stroke.
3. A battle between two armies, navies or air forces
4. A kind; sort.
5. (biology, taxonomy) A species.

• Lívfrøðilig frøðinevni (Jens-Kjeld Jensen & Marjun A. Simonsen) (nomenclature)
• Øktur føroyskur frøðinevnalisti (Jens-Kjeld Jensen) (Extended List of Nomenclature)

• slág

First attested in 1938. From German Schlauch, from Middle High German slūch (“slough, skin shed by a snake”).[1][2]

• IPA^(key): [ˈʃlɒɡ]
• Hyphenation: slag
• Rhymes: -ɒɡ

slag (plural slagok)

1. hose, tube (a flexible tube conveying water or other fluid)

   Synonyms: tömlő, öntözőcső

From Old Norse slag, from Proto-Germanic *slagiz (“hit, blow”).

• IPA^(key): /stlaːɣ/
• Rhymes: -aːɣ

slag n (genitive singular slags, nominative plural slög)

1. A beat, stroke, blow (an act of hitting, beating, striking).
2. (music) A beat.

• slegill

From Old Norse slag, and slagr (sense 4).

slag n (definite singular slaget, indefinite plural slag, definite plural slaga or slagene)

1. A hit; punch.
2. (medicine) A cardiac stroke.
3. A battle between two armies, navies or air forces.
4. A kind; sort.

• “slag” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

• IPA^(key): /ʂlɑːɡ/

From Old Norse slag.

slag n (definite singular slaget, indefinite plural slag, definite plural slaga)

1. a blow, a strike, a punch.

   Boksaren traff med eit hardt slag. ― The boxer landed a hard punch.

2. a battle.

   Napoleon tapte slaget ved Waterloo. ― Napoleon lost the battle of Waterloo.

3. (medicine) a stroke

   Tanta mi er på sjukehus etter å ha fått slag. ― My aunt is in hospital after having a stroke.

4. (nautical) a bilge

From Old Norse slagr.

slag n (definite singular slaget, indefinite plural slag, definite plural slaga)

1. A type, a kind, a sort.

   Eg likar alle slag blomar. ― I like all kinds of flowers.

• “slag” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• lags

From Old Norse slag, from Proto-Germanic *slagiz (“hit, blow”).

• IPA^(key): /slɑːɡ/

• audio

  (file)

slag n

1. A hit; punch.
2. A hit of a ball by a bat or a racket.
3. A battle between two armies, navies or air forces

   Synonyms: fältslag, batalj, strid

   slaget vid Lützen

   the Battle of Lützen (1632)

   slaget om Storbritannien

   the Battle of Britain

4. A stroke; the striking of a clock

   Klockan slog just tre slag. ― The clock just struck three strokes.

5. stroke; the time when a clock strikes

   Han kom precis på slaget midnatt.

   He came on the stroke of midnight.

6. (medicine) stroke; a loss of brain function arising when the blood supply to the brain is suddenly interrupted.

   Synonyms: stroke, slaganfall

7. A kind; sort.

   Synonym: sort

   en fågel av ett ovanligt slag

   a bird of an unusual kind

   Det är ett slags konstverk

   It is a kind of art piece

   Vi har tio slags fiskar i akvariet

   We have ten kinds of fish in our aquarium

   Vad för slags pump är det där?

   What kind of pump is that?

8. A while; moment; a short period of time.

   Synonym: stund

   Kom hit ett slag!

   Come here a minute!

9. A fold on the legs of a pair of trousers, where about an inch of the leg is folded upwards.
10. A lapel

The usage notes for sort also apply for (sense 7) of slag (except with ett traditionally being considered correct).

• hålslag
• få slag

• → Finnish: laaki
• → Finnish: slaagi

• käftsmäll (“punch in the mouth”)
• smocka (“punch”)
• snyting (“punch to the face”)
• tjottablängare (“hard punch”)

• slag in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• slag in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• slag in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

• algs, glas, lags