Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SLAVE-BORN, a.

Born in slavery.

SLAVE-HOLD-ER, n.

One who holds slaves.

SLAVE-HOLD-ING, a.

Holding men in slavery.

SLAVE-LIKE, a.

Like or becoming a slave.

SLAV-ER, n.¹

A ship employed in transporting slaves; a slave ship; a vessel engaged in the slave trade.

SLAV'ER, n.² [the same as Slabber.]

Saliva driveling from the mouth. – Pope.

SLAV'ER, v.i.

1. To suffer the spittle to issue from the mouth.
2. To be besmeared with saliva. – Shak.

SLAV'ER, v.t.

To smear with saliva issuing from the mouth; to defile with drivel.

SLAV'ER-ED, pp.

Defiled with drivel.

SLAV'ER-ER, n.

A driveler; an idiot.

SLAV'ER-ING, ppr.

Letting fall saliva.

SLAVE-RY, n. [See Slave.]

1. Bondage; the state of entire subjection of one person to the will of another. Slavery is the obligation to labor for the benefit of the master, without the contract or consent of the servant. – Paley. Slavery may proceed from crimes, from captivity, or from debt. Slavery is also voluntary or involuntary; voluntary, when a person sells or yields his own person to the absolute command of another; involuntary, when he is placed under the absolute power of another without his own consent. Slavery no longer exists in Great Britain, nor in the northern states of America.
2. The offices of a slave; drudgery.

SLAVE-TRADE, n. [slave and trade.]

The barbarous and wicked business of purchasing men and women, transporting them to a distant country, and selling them for slaves.

SLAV-ISH, a.

1. Pertaining to slaves; servile; mean; base; such as becomes a slave; as, a slavish dependence on the great.
2. Servile; laborious; consisting in drudgery; as, a slavish life.

SLAV-ISH-LY, adv.

1. Servilely; meanly; basely.
2. In the manner of a slave or drudge.

SLAV-ISH-NESS, n.

The state or quality of being slavish; servility; meanness.

SLA-VON'IC, a.

Pertaining to the Slavons, or ancient inhabitants of Russia.

SLA-VON'IC, n.

The Slavonic language.

SLAW, n. [D. slaa.]

Cole-slaw is sliced cabbage, with or without vinegar.

SLAY, v.t. [pret. slew; pp. slain. Sax. slægan, slagan; Goth. slahan; G. schlagen; D. slaaen; Sw. slå; Dan. slaaer, to strike, to kill. The proper sense is to strike, and as beating was an early mode of killing, this word, like smite, came to signify to kill. It seems to be formed on the root of lay; as we say, to lay on.]

1. To kill; to put to death by a weapon or by violence. We say, he slew a man with a sword, with a stone, or with a club, or with other arms; but we never say, the sherif slays a malefactor with a halter, or a man is slain on the gallows or by poison. So that slay retains something of its primitive sense of striking or beating. It is particularly applied to killing in battle, but is properly applied also the killing of an individual man or beast.
2. To destroy.

SLAY-ER, n.

One that slays; a killer; a murderer; an assassin; a destroyer of life.

SLAY-ING, ppr.

Killing; destroying life.

SLEAVE, n. [Ice. slefa.]

The knotted or entangled part of silk or thread; silk or thread untwisted. – Drayton.

SLEAVE, v.t.

To separate threads; or to divide a collection of threads; to sley; a word used by weavers.

SLEAV-ED, a.

Raw; not spun or wrought. – Holinshed.