slay
Meanings
- To kill; to murder.
- To eradicate or stamp out.
- To defeat; to overcome (in a competition or contest).
- To delight or overwhelm, especially with laughter.
- To amaze, stun, or otherwise incapacitate by excellence; to excel at something.
- To have sex with.
- That slays (in any sense).
- Something excellent, amazing, or fashionable.
- Used to express approval or amazement.
- Alternative form of sley
- A surname.
Pronunciation
Word forms
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.