slam

Pronunciation: /ˈslæm/

The English word “slam” has 20 meanings listed here.

verb

To shut with sudden force so as to produce a shock and noise.
To put in or on a particular place with force and loud noise. (Often followed by a preposition such as down, against or into.)
To strike forcefully with some implement.
To strike against suddenly and heavily.
To strike and take the life of or at least incapacitate for some time.
To defeat or overcome in a match.
To speak badly of; to criticize forcefully.
To compete in a poetry slam.
To slam-dance.
To dunk forcefully, to slam dunk.
To move a customer from one service provider to another without their consent.
To drink off, to drink quickly.
To inject intravenously; shoot up.
To perform coitus upon forcefully; to rail.
To occupy and busy with a high workload.
Of a chaffinch: to produce a certain forceful trilling sound.

noun

A sudden impact or blow.
The shock and noise produced by violently closing a door or other object.
A slam dunk.
One of the competitions of the yearly Grand Slam events.

Etymology

From Middle English *slammen (not recorded), apparently from a Scandinavian source ultimately from Old Norse slæma, slœma (“to slam, swing a weapon, strike an object out of reach”), related to Old Norse slamra, slambra (“to slam”). Cognate with Norwegian Bokmål slamre (“to slam”), Swedish slamra (“to pound, beat, make a clatter, rattle”), Norwegian Nynorsk slamra (“to sway, dangle”).

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.