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slay

Pronunciation: /sleɪ/

The English word “slay” has 9 meanings listed here.

verb

  1. To kill; to murder.
  2. To eradicate or stamp out.
  3. To defeat; to overcome (in a competition or contest).
  4. To delight or overwhelm, especially with laughter.
  5. To amaze, stun, or otherwise incapacitate by excellence; to excel at something.
  6. To have sex with.

adjective

  1. That slays (in any sense).

noun

  1. Something excellent, amazing, or fashionable.

interjection

  1. Used to express approval or amazement.

Etymology

From Middle English sleen, slen, from Old English slēan (“to hit, punch, strike; to kill”), from Proto-West Germanic *slahan, from Proto-Germanic *slahaną (“to hit, strike; to kill”), from Proto-Indo-European *slak- (“to hit, strike, throw”). Cognates Cognate with Alemannic German schlaa (“to beat, hit”), Central Franconian schlage, schlon, schloon (“to beat, hit, strike”), Dutch and Low German…

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