<B>slug</B> (2), verb, <B>slugged,</B> <B>slugging,</B> noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Informal.) <DD><I>v.t., v.i. </I> <B>1. </B>to hit hard with the fist. <BR> <I>Ex. to slug a person on the chin.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to hit hard. <BR> <I>Ex. to slug a ball. He slugged two home runs in the game.</I> <DD><I>noun </I> a hard blow, especially with the fist. <BR><I>expr. <B>slug it out,</B> </I>(U.S. Informal.) to fight or compete until one side wins; fight it out. <BR> <I>Ex. Retail casualties mount as St. Louis merchants slug it out with discount houses (Wall Street Journal).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="slugabed">
<B>slugabed, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a lazy, idle person who likes to lie in bed. </DL>
<A NAME="slugfest">
<B>slugfest, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S. Slang.) <DD><B> 1. </B>an occasion of much vigorous battling or contesting; fight; free-for-all. <BR> <I>Ex. (Figurative.) The backslapping camaraderie soon degenerated into a verbal slugfest (Newsweek).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a baseball game dominated by heavy hitting. <BR> <I>Ex. Last night's anticipated pitching duel ... turned into a slugfest (New York Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="sluggard">
<B>sluggard, </B>noun, adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> a lazy, idle person. <BR> <I>Ex. Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise (Proverbs 6:6).</I> <DD><I>adj. </I> lazy; idle, (SYN) sluggish, slothful. </DL>
<A NAME="sluggardly">
<B>sluggardly, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> lazy; indolent; slothful. <BR> <I>Ex. It failed ... to rouse me from a sluggardly half-sleep (London Times).</I> </DL>
<B>slugger, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Informal.) <DD><B> 1. </B>a person who slugs or hits hard. <DD><B> 2. </B>a boxer; pugilist. <DD><B> 3. </B>a baseball player who hits balls that go far, especially one that gets many extra-base hits. <BR> <I>Ex. In ... a year when the sluggers controlled the game, 18 players batted .300 or better (Time).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="slugging">
<B>slugging, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Informal.) the act of a person who slugs or hits hard; hard hitting; beating. </DL>
<A NAME="sluggingaverage">
<B>slugging average,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a percentage showing the effectiveness of a baseball player in making extra-base hits. It is obtained by dividing the total number of bases reached by the number of times at bat. </DL>
<A NAME="sluggingmatch">
<B>slugging match,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a boxing match or fistfight involving hard hits. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Informal, Figurative.) a sharp or forceful dispute. <BR> <I>Ex. The Pentagon vs. Congress slugging match over the choice ... (Wall Street Journal).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="sluggish">
<B>sluggish, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>not active; slow-moving; lacking energy or vigor. <BR> <I>Ex. He has a sluggish mind and shows little interest in anything.</I> (SYN) dull, inert. <DD><B> 2. </B>lazy; idle. <DD><B> 3. </B>moving very slowly; having little motion. <BR> <I>Ex. The stream was so sluggish that I could hardly tell which way it flowed.</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>slow; tardy. <BR> <I>Ex. a sluggish digestion. Climbing again into his car, pushing at the sluggish starter (Graham Greene).</I> adv. <B>sluggishly.</B> noun <B>sluggishness.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="slughorn">
<B>slughorn, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a kind of trumpet. </DL>
<A NAME="slugworm">
<B>slugworm, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the slimy sluglike larva of any one of various sawflies. </DL>
<A NAME="sluice">
<B>sluice, </B>noun, verb, <B>sluiced,</B> <B>sluicing.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a structure with a gate or gates for holding back or controlling the water of a canal, river, or lake. <BR> <I>Ex. A big sluice has been constructed on the Austrian bank of the Danube and shipping can proceed through locks on the Bavarian side (Wall Street Journal).</I> <DD><B> 2a. </B>a gate that holds back or controls the flow of water. When the water behind a dam gets too high, the sluices are opened. <DD><B> b. </B>(Figurative:) <BR> <I>Ex. War opens the sluices of hatred and bloodshed.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>the water held back or controlled by such a gate. <DD><B> 4. </B>a valve, pipe, or other device that regulates the flow of water into or out of some receptacle. <DD><B> 5. </B>a long, sloping trough through which water flows, used to wash gold from sand, dirt, or gravel. <BR> <I>Ex. The sluice consists of an inclined channel through which runs a stream of water and into which the gold-bearing earth is shoveled (White and Renner).</I> <DD><B> 6. </B>a channel for carrying off overflow or surplus water. <DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1. </B>to let out or draw off (water or other fluid) by opening a sluice. <BR> <I>Ex. The farmers watered their crops by sluicing water into the fields once a week.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to flush or cleanse with a rush of water; pour or throw water over; slush. <BR> <I>Ex. Mud brought by the flooding was sluiced from the street by fire hoses.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>to wash (gold) from sand, dirt, or gravel in a sluice. <DD><B> 4. </B>to carry or send (logs) along a channel of water. <DD><I>v.i. </I> to flow or pour in a stream; rush; <BR> <I>Ex. Water sluiced down the channel.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="sluicegate">
<B>sluice gate,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a gate to control the flow of water in a sluice. </DL>
<A NAME="sluiceway">
<B>sluiceway, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a channel controlled or fed by a sluice. <DD><B> 2. </B>any small, artificial channel for running water. </DL>
<A NAME="sluicy">
<B>sluicy, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Archaic.) <DD><B> 1. </B>pouring abundantly. <BR> <I>Ex. And oft whole sheets descend of sluicy rain (John Dryden).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>wet. <BR> <I>Ex. the cool and sluicy sands (Keats).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="sluit">
<B>sluit, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (in South Africa) a gully made by heavy rains. </DL>
<A NAME="slum">
<B>slum, </B>noun, verb, <B>slummed,</B> <B>slumming.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>Often, <B>slums.</B> a street, alley, or building in a crowded, run-down, dirty part of a city or town, where the poorest people live. Poverty and disease are common in the slums. <BR> <I>Ex. We hear stories now and then of some boy from a slum who makes good and winds up with a fortune. If [his] philosophy prevails, we shall have taken a long step backward toward the sweatshop and the slums (Time).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>extreme poverty and low social class, as in the slums. <BR> <I>Ex. to rise from the slums to power and wealth.</I> <DD><I>v.i. </I> <B>1. </B>to go into or visit a slum or slums. <DD><B> 2. </B>to go into or visit any place thought of as greatly inferior to one's own. </DL>
<A NAME="slumber">
<B>slumber, </B>verb, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.i. </I> <B>1. </B>to sleep; sleep lightly; doze. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) <DD><B> a. </B>to be like a person asleep; be inactive. <BR> <I>Ex. slumbering anger. The volcano had slumbered for years.</I> <DD><B> b. </B>to be negligently inactive. <BR> <I>Ex. to slumber while one's enemies arm themselves.</I> <DD><I>v.t. </I> to pass in slumber. <BR> <I>Ex. The baby slumbers away the hours.</I> <DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a sleep; light sleep; doze. <BR> <I>Ex. He awoke from his slumber.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) an inactive state or condition. noun <B>slumberer.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="slumberland">
<B>slumberland, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the imaginary country of slumber. </DL>
<A NAME="slumberless">
<B>slumberless, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> without slumber; sleepless. </DL>
<A NAME="slumberous">
<B>slumberous, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>sleepy; heavy with drowsiness. <BR> <I>Ex. slumberous eyelids.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>causing or inducing sleep. <DD><B> 3. </B>having to do with, characterized by, or suggestive of sleep. <DD><B> 4. </B>(Figurative.) inactive; sluggish. <DD><B> 5. </B>calm; quiet. adv. <B>slumberously.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="slumberparty">
<B>slumber party,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S.) a gathering of young girls in a home to spend the night together; pajama party. <BR> <I>Ex. They had been to a slumber party ... and had not slept at all (New Yorker).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="slumbery">
<B>slumbery, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>slumberous; sleepy. <DD><B> 2. </B>of or like slumber. </DL>
<B>slum clearance,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the clearing away of slums in connection with a program of housing and redevelopment. <BR> <I>Ex. The largest efforts will be directed at slum clearance and improvement of blighted homes (New York Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="slumdom">
<B>slumdom, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the condition of being a slum. <BR> <I>Ex. Neglected, this property will slip by degrees into slumdom (London Times).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>the people living in a slum. </DL>
<A NAME="slumdweller">
<B>slumdweller, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a person who lives in a slum. </DL>
<A NAME="slumgullion">
<B>slumgullion. </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a stew of meat and vegetables, usually potatoes and onions. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Mining.) the thick and sticky refuse of the sluice boxes, generally of red, iron-bearing clay and water. <DD><B> 3. </B>(Slang.) a low, worthless fellow. </DL>
<A NAME="slumgum">
<B>slumgum, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the impurities that remain as a residue after the wax is extracted from honeycombs. </DL>
<A NAME="slumism">
<B>slumism, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S.) the existence or proliferation of city slums. <BR> <I>Ex. We must show the same unhesitating commitment to fighting slumism, poverty, ... and unemployment (Harper's).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="slumlord">
<B>slumlord, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S.) the owner of a run-down tenement house, usually in the slums. <BR> <I>Ex. The number of housing violations we have found [shows] how strongly we are attacking the slumlords (Robert F. Wagner).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="slumlordship">
<B>slumlordship, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S.) the condition of being a slumlord. </DL>
<A NAME="slummer">
<B>slummer, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a person who visits slums for charitable purposes, curiosity, or study. </DL>
<A NAME="slumminess">
<B>slumminess, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the quality or condition of being slummy. </DL>
<A NAME="slumming">
<B>slumming, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the visiting of slums, as for charitable purposes or from curiosity. </DL>
<A NAME="slummy">
<B>slummy, </B>adjective, <B>-mier,</B> <B>-miest.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>characteristic of a slum or of people living there. <BR> <I>Ex. a slummy street, accent, or manner.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>full of slums. </DL>
