adj
Meaning 1
That slays (in any sense).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
slay
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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slā
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/sleɪ/
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US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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rhymes with -eɪ
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homophone: sleigh
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homophone: sley
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CMU ARPABET: S L EY1 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
intj
Meaning 2
Used to express approval or amazement.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Qualifier: chiefly African-American Vernacular and LGBTQ slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
Meaning 3
A surname.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
Something excellent, amazing, or fashionable.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Qualifier: chiefly African-American Vernacular and LGBTQ slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 5
Alternative form of sley
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: alt-of, alternative
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 6
To kill; to murder.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: literary, transitive
Examples
- The knight slew the dragon.
- Our foes must all be slain.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: annihilate, bag, baptize, bereave of life, blight, bring down, bump off, bury, cack, compromised to a permanent end, croak, crush, dash, deactivate, dead, demolish, destroy, dispatch, dispose of, do, do in, dust, eliminate, end, eradicate, ex, exterminate, finish, finish off, flatten, grease, knock off, lay waste to, make away with, merc, mortify, neutralize, obliterate, off, pay off, pick off, polish off, pop off, punch someone's ticket, put an end to, put down, put someone out of their misery, put six feet under, put to sleep, ravage, rub out, ruin, scotch, scupper, scuttle, send to eternity, send to hell, send to the grave, send to the great beyond, send to the next life, shut up, slay, slaughter, slime out, smash, smite, snuff, squash, stiff, stop someone's clock, take, terminate, terminate with extreme prejudice, top off, top, torpedo, take care of, take down, take out, waste, wax, wet, whack, wipe out, wreck
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 7
To eradicate or stamp out.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: literary, transitive
Examples
- You must slay these thoughts.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 8
To defeat; to overcome (in a competition or contest).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: broadly, excessive, informal, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: conquer
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 9
To delight or overwhelm, especially with laughter.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: slang, transitive
Examples
- Ha ha! You slay me!
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: hit it out of the park, kill
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 10
To amaze, stun, or otherwise incapacitate by excellence; to excel at something.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: ambitransitive
Qualifier: chiefly African-American Vernacular and LGBTQ slang
Examples
- Your outfit slays!
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: kill, rule, bang, devour, eat, eat and leave no crumbs, excel, go hard, kick, kick ass, rock, shine, slap, slay
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 11
To have sex with.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: coitize, go to bed with, sleep with, Formal terms, bed, coit, dight, enjoy, feague, go in unto, have, know, lie by, lie with, love, mount, occupy, penetrate, season, seduce, take, Any of Thesaurus:copulate + "with", Informal and slang terms, ball, bang, bauf, beep, be with, bone, boff, boink, bonk, boom-boom, dick, diddle, dig out, do, doink, drill, eff, expletive deleted, fill, frack, frak, frick, frig, fuck, get into someone's pants, get over on, get up in, give someone one, give someone the time, go with, have one's way with, have one's wicked way with, hit, hump, jape, jump, jump someone's bones, knob, knock, knock off, know someone in the biblical sense, lay, love up, make, nail, plough, plug, poke, pork, pound, prig, pump, ravage, ream, rock, roger, root, run through, rut, sard, schlong, screw, see to, service, shaft, shag, shelve, slay, slip it to, smash, smush, stallionize, swive, tap, tup, wap
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 12
kill intentionally and with premeditation
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- The mafia boss ordered his enemies murdered
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: murder, hit, dispatch, bump off, off, polish off, remove
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: kill
Narrower terms: burke, execute
History
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 slaan (“to beat, hit, strike”), German schlagen, schlahen, schlahn (“to beat, hit, strike”), Luxembourgish schloen (“to beat, defeat, hit”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish slå (“to beat, hit, strike”), Faroese sláa (“to beat, strike”), Icelandic slá (“to hit, strike”), Gothic 𐍃𐌻𐌰𐌷𐌰𐌽 (slahan, “to hit, smite, strike”). Related to slaughter, onslaught.
See sley
Across languages
Translations
64 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Arabic: قَتَلَ (qatala) — to kill, murder
- Arabic: أَزْهَقَ رُوحَهُ (ʔazhaqa rūḥahu) — to kill, murder
- Arabic: ذَبَحَ (ḏabaḥa) — to kill, murder
- Armenian: սպանել (spanel) — to kill, murder
- Belarusian: забіва́ць (zabivácʹ) — to kill, murder
- Belarusian: забі́ць (zabícʹ) — to kill, murder
- Bulgarian: убивам (ubivam) — to kill, murder
- Catalan: matar — to kill, murder
- Catalan: assassinar — to kill, murder
- Chinese Mandarin: 殺 /杀 (shā) — to kill, murder
- Chinese Mandarin: 謀殺 /谋杀 (móushā) — to kill, murder
- Chinese Mandarin: 殘殺 /残杀 (cánshā) — to kill, murder
- Danish: dræbe — to kill, murder
- Dutch: doden — to kill, murder
- Dutch: vermoorden — to kill, murder
- Egyptian: s-mA-A-T30 (smꜣ) — to kill, murder
- Finnish: tappaa — to kill, murder
- Finnish: surmata — to kill, murder
- French: tuer — to kill, murder
- French: assassiner — to kill, murder
- French: occire — to kill, murder
- German: töten — to kill, murder
- German: umbringen — to kill, murder
- German: erschlagen — to kill, murder
- Greek: σκοτώνω (skotóno) — to kill, murder
- Ancient Greek: ἀποκτείνω (apokteínō) — to kill, murder
- Hebrew: רָצַח (raṣáḥ) — to kill, murder
- Hindi: हयना (haynā) — to kill, murder
- Hungarian: öl — to kill, murder
- Icelandic: bana — to kill, murder
- Ido: ocidar — to kill, murder
- Ingrian: tappaa — to kill, murder
- Ingrian: mukistaa — to kill, murder
- Ingrian: leikata — to kill, murder
- Ingrian: surmata — to kill, murder
- Italian: uccidere — to kill, murder
- Italian: assassinare — to kill, murder
- Japanese: 殺す (korosu) — to kill, murder
- Latin: occīdō — to kill, murder
- Latin: interficiō — to kill, murder
- Latin: necō — to kill, murder
- Latin: lētō — to kill, murder
- Latvian: kaut — to kill, murder
- Lithuanian: nužudyti — to kill, murder
- Occitan: tuar — to kill, murder
- Occitan: matar — to kill, murder
- Occitan: assassinar — to kill, murder
- Occitan: aucir — to kill, murder
- Portuguese: matar — to kill, murder
- Portuguese: assassinar — to kill, murder
- Romanian: omorî — to kill, murder
- Romanian: ucide — to kill, murder
- Romanian: asasina — to kill, murder
- Russian: уби́ть (ubítʹ) — to kill, murder
- Russian: убива́ть (ubivátʹ) — to kill, murder
- Sanskrit: हन्ति (hanti) — to kill, murder
- Spanish: matar — to kill, murder
- Spanish: asesinar — to kill, murder
- Swedish: dräpa — to kill, murder
- Swedish: slå ihjäl — to kill, murder
- Tagalog: patayin — to kill, murder
- Tagalog: paslangin — to kill, murder
- Tocharian B: kau- — to kill, murder
- Tok Pisin: kilim — to kill, murder