slash

1
[ slash ]
See synonyms for: slashslashedslashing on Thesaurus.com

verb (used with object)
  1. to cut with a violent sweeping stroke or by striking violently and at random, as with a knife or sword.

  2. to lash; whip.

  1. to cut, reduce, or alter: The editors slashed the story to half its length.

  2. to make slits in (a garment) to show an underlying fabric.

  3. to criticize, censure, or attack in a savage or cutting manner.

verb (used without object)
  1. to lay about one with sharp, sweeping strokes; make one's way by cutting.

  2. to make a sweeping, cutting stroke.

noun
  1. a sweeping stroke, as with a knife, sword, or pen.

  2. a cut, wound, or mark made with such a stroke.

  1. a curtailment, reduction, or alteration: a drastic slash of prices.

  2. a decorative slit in a garment showing an underlying fabric.

    • a short oblique stroke (/) between two words indicating that whichever is appropriate may be chosen to complete the sense of the text in which they occur; a virgule: you and/or your dependents.

    • a dividing line, as in dates, fractions, a run-in passage of poetry to show verse division, etc.; a virgule: She got 3/4 of the answers correct.“Sweetest love, I do not go/For weariness of thee.” (John Donne)

  3. (in forest land)

    • an open area strewn with debris of trees from felling or from wind or fire.

    • the debris itself.

  4. Slang. slash fiction.

Origin of slash

1
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English slaschen, perhaps from Old French esclachier “to break”

Other words for slash

Other words from slash

  • un·slashed, adjective

Words Nearby slash

Other definitions for slash (2 of 2)

slash2
[ slash ]

noun
  1. Often slashes. a tract of wet or swampy ground overgrown with bushes or trees.

Origin of slash

2
An Americanism dating back to 1645–55; origin uncertain

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use slash in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for slash

slash

/ (slæʃ) /


verb(tr)
  1. to cut or lay about (a person or thing) with sharp sweeping strokes, as with a sword, knife, etc

  2. to lash with a whip

  1. to make large gashes in: to slash tyres

  2. to reduce (prices, etc) drastically

  3. mainly US to criticize harshly

  4. to slit (the outer fabric of a garment) so that the lining material is revealed

  5. to clear (scrub or undergrowth) by cutting

noun
  1. a sharp, sweeping stroke, as with a sword or whip

  2. a cut or rent made by such a stroke

  1. a decorative slit in a garment revealing the lining material

  2. US and Canadian

    • littered wood chips and broken branches that remain after trees have been cut down

    • an area so littered

  3. Also called: diagonal, forward slash, separatrix, shilling mark, solidus, stroke, virgule a short oblique stroke used in text to separate items of information, such as days, months, and years in dates (18/7/80), alternative words (and/or), numerator from denominator in fractions (55/103), etc

  4. British slang the act of urinating (esp in the phrase have a slash)

  5. a genre of erotic fiction written by women, to appeal to women

Origin of slash

1
C14 slaschen, perhaps from Old French esclachier to break

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012