slug

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See also: sług

English

WOTD – 17 January 2016

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Pronunciation

  • enPR: slŭg, IPA(key): /slʌɡ/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Audio (AU):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ʌɡ

Etymology 1

The Spanish slug (Lua error in Module:parameters at line 828: Parameter "ver" is not used by this template.)

Originally referred to a slow, lazy person, from Middle English slugge, probably of Old Norse origin; compare dialectal Norwegian sluggje (“heavy, slow person”). Compare also Dutch slak (“snail, slug”).

Noun

slug (plural slugs)

  1. Any of many terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks, having no (or only a rudimentary) shell. [from early 18th c.]
  2. (obsolete) A slow, lazy person; a sluggard. [from early 15th c.]
  3. A bullet or other projectile fired from a firearm; in modern usage, generally refers to a shotgun slug. [from 1620s]
    • 1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar, London, p. 55,[2]
      […] all our Ammunition was spent. Those of us who had Money made Slugs of it; their next Shift was to take the middle Screws out of their Guns, and charge their Pieces with them.
  4. A solid block or piece of roughly shaped metal.
  5. A counterfeit coin, especially one used to steal from vending machines. [from 1880s]
  6. A shot of a drink, usually alcoholic. [from 1750s]
  7. (journalism) A title, name or header, a catchline, a short phrase or title to indicate the content of a newspaper or magazine story for editing use. [from 1920s]
  8. (physics, rarely used) the Imperial (English) unit of mass that accelerates by 1 foot per second squared (1 ft/s²) when a force of one pound-force (lbf) is exerted on it.
  9. A discrete mass of a material that moves as a unit, usually through another material.
    • 1973, Pulp & Paper International, volume 15:
      When these layers are recovered they inevitably result in a slug of sawdust which goes into the digester and tends to plug the screens in a Kamyr digester.
    • 1987, United States. Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, United States. Board of Mine Operations Appeals, Occupational safety and health decisions:
      Then, just a few nights before August 6, Gilbert testified that a "slug of sand-rock" weighing an estimate of one to two tons fell on his continuous miner as he was taking a cut, approximately fifteen feet from where he was standing.
    • 1998, Orrin H. Pilkey with Katharine L. Dixon, The Corps and the Shore, page 159:
      Tvpically, enough sand is emplaced to create a slug of sand that moves along the shore causing noticeable and somewhat dramatic local changes.
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    • 2005, Sam Mannan with Frank P. Lees, Lee's loss prevention in the process industries, pages 16-115:
      Another phenomenon investigated was a slug of water falling through the cloud.
    • 2007, William Lauer with Fred Sanchez, Disinfection of pipelines and storage facilities field guide, page 54:
      This method uses a slug of 100 mg/L chlorinated water as a slug that moves along the length of the pipeline. The slug is a percentage of the total length of the pipeline.
    • 2010, Nancy E. McTigue with James M. Symons, American Water Works Association, The water dictionary: a comprehensive reference of water terminology, page 556:
      For example, a slug of iron rust might appear because of the shearing action of a high-demand flow that loosens a previously deposited iron precipitate.
    • 2010, Robert A. Meyers, Extreme Environmental Events, page 1198:
      These experiments investigate the ascent of a slug of gas in a vertical liquid-filed tube featuring a flare that abruptly doubles the cross sectional area.
    • 2011, Bill Calfee, The Art of Rimfire Accuracy, page 125:
      You had to learn to grab the teat up next to the udder with your thumb and side of your first finger, grab a slug of milk and progressively squeeze it down the teat past your middle finger, ring finger and little finger
  10. A motile pseudoplasmodium formed by amoebae working together.
  11. (rail transport) An accessory to a diesel-electric locomotive, used to increase adhesive weight and allow full power to be applied at a lower speed. It has trucks with traction motors, but lacks a prime mover, being powered by electricity from the mother locomotive, and may or may not have a control cab.
  12. (television editing) A black screen.
  14. (letterpress typography) A piece of type metal imprinted by a linotype machine; also a black mark placed in the margin to indicate an error; also said in application to typewriters; type slug.
  15. (regional) A stranger picked up as a passenger to enable legal use of high occupancy vehicle lanes.
  16. (US, slang, District of Columbia) A hitchhiking commuter.
  17. (web design) The last part of a clean URL, the displayed resource name, similar to a filename.
  18. (obsolete) A hindrance, an obstruction.
  19. A ship that sails slowly.
    • 1666,Samuel Pepys, Diary entry 17 October 1666
      His rendezvous for his fleet, and for all sluggs to come to, should be between Calais and Dover.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
See also
  • (gastropod, locomotive): snail

Verb

slug (third-person singular simple present slugs, present participle slugging, simple past and past participle slugged)

  1. To drink quickly; to gulp; to down.
  2. To take part in casual carpooling; to form ad hoc, informal carpools for commuting, essentially a variation of ride-share commuting and hitchhiking.
    • 1998 July 23, “Ramsey Vows to Find New Sites for Commuter `Slug Lines'”, in Washington Post:
      "We believe in car-pooling, but let's do it without restricting traffic. ..." Sam Snyder, 51, of Burke, who has been slugging to his job at the US Customs ....
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  3. (intransitive, of a bullet) To become reduced in diameter, or changed in shape, by passing from a larger to a smaller part of the bore of the barrel.
  4. (obsolete, intransitive) To move slowly or sluggishly; to lie idle.
  5. (transitive) To load with a slug or slugs.
    to slug a gun
  6. To make sluggish.
Derived terms

Etymology 2

Uncertain. Perhaps somehow from Proto-Germanic *slagiz (“a blow, strike”). If so, then ultimately cognate with German Schlag (“blow, hit”) and Dutch slag (“blow, strike”).

Noun

slug (plural slugs)

  2. A hard blow, usually with the fist. [from 1830s]

Verb

slug (third-person singular simple present slugs, present participle slugging, simple past and past participle slugged)

  1. (transitive) To hit very hard, usually with the fist.
    He insulted my mother, so I slugged him.
    The fighter slugged his opponent into unconsciousness.
Derived terms

References

Anagrams

Manx

Etymology

Cognate with Irish slog.

Verb

slug (verbal noun sluggey, past participle sluggit)

  1. to swallow, swig, slug, guzzle, draw
  2. to devour, gorge, gulp
  3. to engulf

Mutation

Template:gv mut cons

Noun

slug m (genitive singular slug, plural sluggyn)

  1. swallow, swig, draught

Mutation

Template:gv mut cons

Derived terms

Swedish

Pronunciation

Adjective

slug

  1. cunning, sly

Declension

Inflection of slug
Indefinite Positive Comparative Superlative2
Common singular slug slugare slugast
Neuter singular slugt slugare slugast
Plural sluga slugare slugast
Masculine plural3 sluge slugare slugast
Definite Positive Comparative Superlative
Masculine singular1 sluge slugare slugaste
All sluga slugare slugaste
1) Only used, optionally, to refer to things whose natural gender is masculine.
2) The indefinite superlative forms are only used in the predicative.
3) Dated or archaic

Yola

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Verb

slug

  1. to eat greedily

References

  • Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867
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