sling

From Middle English slynge (noun), slyngen (verb), probably from Old Norse slyngja, slyngva (“to hurl”), from Proto-Germanic *slingwaną (“to worm, twist”) or compare Old English slingan (“to wind, twist”), from the same source.

Compare German schlingen (“to swing, wind, twist”), Danish and Norwegian slynge), from Proto-Indo-European *slenk- (“to turn, twist”) (compare Welsh llyngyr (“worms, maggots”), Lithuanian sliñkti (“to crawl like a snake”), Latvian slìkt (“to sink”)).

• IPA^(key): /ˈslɪŋ/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪŋ

sling (third-person singular simple present slings, present participle slinging, simple past and past participle slung or slang)

1. To throw with a circular or arcing motion.
   • 2000, Bible (World English), Judges xx. 16

     Everyone could sling stones at an hairbreadth, and not miss.

   • a. 1720, Joseph Addison, “Milton’s Style Imitated, in a Translation of a Story out of the Third Æneid”, in The Dramatick Works of Joseph Addison. With the Authour’s Poems, on Several Occasions:

     slings a broken rock aloft in air

2. To throw with a sling.
3. (nautical) To pass a rope around (a cask, gun, etc.) preparatory to attaching a hoisting or lowering tackle.
4. (slang) To sell, peddle, or distribute (often illicitly, e.g. drugs, sex, etc.).

   Synonyms: slang, flog, flip

   • 2008, Breaking Bad, Season 1, Episode 6:

     You may know a lot about chemistry, man, but you don't know jack about slinging dope.

A diagram of how to put on a sling (sense 2)

sling (plural slings)

1. (weapon) An instrument for throwing stones or other missiles, consisting of a short strap with two strings fastened to its ends, or with a string fastened to one end and a light stick to the other.
   • 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 43:

     The Sling is also a weapon of great antiquity, formerly in high estimation among the ancients.

2. A kind of hanging bandage put around the neck, in which a wounded arm or hand is supported.
3. A loop of cloth, worn around the neck, for supporting a baby or other such load.
4. A loop of rope, or a rope or chain with hooks, for suspending a barrel, bale, or other heavy object, in hoisting or lowering.
5. A strap attached to a firearm, for suspending it from the shoulder.
6. (nautical, chiefly in the plural) A band of rope or iron for securing a yard to a mast.
7. The act or motion of hurling as with a sling; a throw; figuratively, a stroke.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     At one sling
     Of thy victorious arm, well-pleasing Son.

   • 1600, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, act III, scene I, line 55:

     To be, or not to be, that is the question:
     Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
     The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
     Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
     And by opposing, end them.

8. (climbing) A loop of rope or fabric tape used for various purposes: e.g. as part of a runner, or providing extra protection when abseiling or belaying.
9. A drink composed of a spirit (usually gin) and water sweetened.

   gin sling

   a Singapore sling

• → Spanish: eslinga

From a shortening of spiderling.

sling (plural slings)

1. A young or infant spider, such as one raised in captivity.

• Sling in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

• -lings, Lings, lings

sling

1. Alternative form of slynge