*slu*

v. t. To beslobber. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Gr. dys- ill, hard + &unr_; to loose, dissolve. ] (Min.) A variety of the zinc spinel or gahnite. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ See Slug to be idle. ] To lsoe by idleness or slotch. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Ill luck; misfortune. [ 1913 Webster ]

(Zool.) (a) A holothurian. (b) A nudibranch mollusk. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Slightly clear; transmitting light in a slight degree. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Etymol. uncertain. ] A roll of wool slightly twisted; a rove; -- called also slubbing. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Slubbed p. pr. & vb. n. Slubbing. ] To draw out and twist slightly; -- said of slivers of wool. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Slubbered p. pr. & vb. n. Slubbering. ] [ Cf. Dan. slubbreto swallow, to sup up, D. slobberen to lap, to slabber. Cf. Slabber. ] 1. To do lazily, imperfectly, or coarsely. [ 1913 Webster ]

Slubber not business for my sake. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To daub; to stain; to cover carelessly. [ 1913 Webster ]

There is no art that hath more . . . slubbered with aphorisming pedantry than the art of policy. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A slubbing machine. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Slubber + Prov. E. gullion a wretch. ] A mean, dirty wretch. [ Low ] [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In a slovenly, or hurried and imperfect, manner. [ Low ] Drayton. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. & n. from Slub. [ 1913 Webster ]

Slubbing billy, or
Slubbing machine, the machine by which slubs are formed. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ CF. Slush. ] 1. Mud; mire; soft mud; slush. Mortimer. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Small floating pieces of ice, or masses of saturated snow. Kane. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Mining) See Slime, 4. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Anything resembling mud or slush; as: (a) A muddy or slimy deposit from sweage. (b) Mud from a drill hole in boring. (c) Muddy sediment in a steam boiler. (d) Settling of cottonseed oil, used in making soap, etc. (e) A residuum of crude paraffin-oil distillation. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

Sludge hole, the hand-hole, or manhole, in a steam boiler, by means of which sediment can be removed. [ 1913 Webster ]

. Impure dark-colored sulphuric acid that has been used in the refining of petroleum. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. A shovel for sludging out drains, etc. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. A bucket for removing mud from a bored hole; a sand pump. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Miry; slushy. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Slued p. pr. & vb. n. Sluing ] [ Prov. E. slew to turn round, Scot. to lean or incline to a side; cf. Icel. sn&unr_;a to turn, bend. ] [ Written also slew. ] 1. (Naut.) To turn about a fixed point, usually the center or axis, as a spar or piece of timber; to turn; -- used also of any heavy body. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. In general, to turn about; to twist; -- often used reflexively and followed by round. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

They laughed, and slued themselves round. Dickens. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To turn about; to turn from the course; to slip or slide and turn from an expected or desired course; -- often followed by round. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. See Sloough, 2. [ Local ] [ 1913 Webster ]

{ or } n. A slough; a run or wet place. See 2d Slough, 2. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. slugge slothful, sluggen to be slothful; cf. LG. slukk low-spirited, sad, E. slack, slouch, D. slak, slek, a snail. ] 1. A drone; a slow, lazy fellow; a sluggard. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A hindrance; an obstruction. [ Obs. ] Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Zool.) Any one of numerous species of terrestrial pulmonate mollusks belonging to Limax and several related genera, in which the shell is either small and concealed in the mantle, or altogether wanting. They are closely allied to the land snails. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Zool.) Any smooth, soft larva of a sawfly or moth which creeps like a mollusk; as, the pear slug; rose slug. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. A ship that sails slowly. [ Obs. ] Halliwell. [ 1913 Webster ]

His rendezvous for his fleet, and for all slugs to come to, should be between Calais and Dover. Pepys. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. [ Perhaps a different word. ] An irregularly shaped piece of metal, used as a missile for a gun. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. (Print.) A thick strip of metal less than type high, and as long as the width of a column or a page, -- used in spacing out pages and to separate display lines, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

Sea slug. (Zool.) (a) Any nudibranch mollusk. (b) A holothurian. --
Slug caterpillar. Same as Slugworm. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To move slowly; to lie idle. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

To slug in sloth and sensual delight. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To make sluggish. [ Obs. ] Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Slugged p. pr. & vb. n. Slugging ] 1. To load with a slug or slugs; as, to slug a gun. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To strike heavily. [ Cant or Slang ] [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To become reduced in diameter, or changed in shape, by passing from a larger to a smaller part of the bore of the barrel; -- said of a bullet when fired from a gun, pistol, or other firearm. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who indulges in lying abed; a sluggard. [ R. ] “Fie, you slugabed!” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Slug + -ard. ] A person habitually lazy, idle, and inactive; a drone. [ 1913 Webster ]

Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Prov. vi. 6. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Sluggish; lazy. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To make lazy. [ R. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. sloggardye. ] The state of being a sluggard; sluggishness; sloth. Gower. [ 1913 Webster ]

Idleness is rotten sluggardy. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who strikes heavy blows; hence, a boxer; a prize fighter. [ Cant or Slang ] [ 1913 Webster ]

[ 1913 Webster ]

. (Baseball) a measure of the effectiveness of a batter at reaching base and advancing other runners, calculated as the sum of the number of bases reached on each hit, divided by the total number of times at bat. A double counts two bases, a triple three, a home run four. Thus a batter with four singles, two doubles and a triple in 20 official times at bat would have a slugging average of 0.550, and a batting average of 0.350. Also called slugging percentage. Compare batting average. [ PJC ]

. (a) A boxing match or prize fight marked rather by heavy hitting than skill. [ Cant or Slang ] (b) A ball game, esp. a baseball game, in which there is much hard hitting of the ball. [ Slang, U. S. ] [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

a. 1. Habitually idle and lazy; slothful; dull; inactive; as, a sluggish man. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Slow; having little motion; as, a sluggish stream. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Having no power to move one's self or itself; inert. [ 1913 Webster ]

Matter, being impotent, sluggish, and inactive, hath no power to stir or move itself. Woodward. [ 1913 Webster ]

And the sluggish land slumbers in utter neglect. Longfellow. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Characteristic of a sluggard; dull; stupid; tame; simple. [ R. ] “So sluggish a conceit.” Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Inert; idle; lazy; slothful; indolent; dronish; slow; dull; drowsy; inactive. See Inert. [ 1913 Webster ]

-- Slug"gish*ly, adv. -- Slug"gish*ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Sluggish. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. An erroneous form of the Scotch word slughorne, or sloggorne, meaning slogan. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. pl. (Mining) Half-roasted ore. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) Any caterpillar which has the general appearance of a slug, as do those of certain moths belonging to Limacodes and allied genera, and those of certain sawflies. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OF. escluse, F. écluse, LL. exclusa, sclusa, from L. excludere, exclusum, to shut out: cf. D. sluis sluice, from the Old French. See Exclude. ] 1. An artifical passage for water, fitted with a valve or gate, as in a mill stream, for stopping or regulating the flow; also, a water gate or flood gate. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Hence, an opening or channel through which anything flows; a source of supply. [ 1913 Webster ]

Each sluice of affluent fortune opened soon. Harte. [ 1913 Webster ]

This home familiarity . . . opens the sluices of sensibility. I. Taylor. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The stream flowing through a flood gate. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Mining) A long box or trough through which water flows, -- used for washing auriferous earth. [ 1913 Webster ]

Sluice gate, the sliding gate of a sluice. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Sluiced p. pr. & vb. n. Sluicing ] 1. To emit by, or as by, flood gates. [ R. ] Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To wet copiously, as by opening a sluice; as, to sluice meadows. Howitt. [ 1913 Webster ]

He dried his neck and face, which he had been sluicing with cold water. De Quincey. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To wash with, or in, a stream of water running through a sluice; as, to sluice eart or gold dust in mining. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. An artificial channel into which water is let by a sluice; specifically, a trough constructed over the bed of a stream, so that logs, lumber, or rubbish can be floated down to some convenient place of delivery. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Falling copiously or in streams, as from a sluice. [ 1913 Webster ]

And oft whole sheets descend of sluicy rain. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ CF. Slump, n. ] 1. A foul back street of a city, especially one filled with a poor, dirty, degraded, and often vicious population; any low neighborhood or dark retreat; -- usually in the plural; as, Westminster slums are haunts for theives. Dickens. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. pl. (Mining) Same as Slimes. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To visit or frequent slums, esp. out of curiosity, or for purposes of study, etc. Also called go slumming. [ Colloq. ] [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Slumbered p. pr. & vb. n. Slumbering. ] [ OE. slombren, slumberen, slumeren, AS. slumerian, fr. sluma slumber; akin to D. sluimeren to slumber, MHG. slummern, slumen, G. schlummern, Dan. slumre, Sw. slumra, Goth. slawan to be silent. ] 1. To sleep; especially, to sleep lightly; to doze. Piers Plowman. [ 1913 Webster ]

He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. Ps. cxxi. 4. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To be in a state of negligence, sloth, supineness, or inactivity. “Why slumbers Pope?” Young. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. 1. To lay to sleep. [ R. ] Wotton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To stun; to stupefy. [ Obs. ] Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]