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slag

Pronunciation: /ˈslæɡ/

The English word “slag” has 14 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. Waste material from a mine.
  2. Scum that forms on the surface of molten metal.
  3. Impurities formed and separated out when a metal is smelted from ore; vitrified cinders.
  4. Hard aggregate remaining as a residue from blast furnaces, sometimes used as a surfacing material.
  5. Scoria associated with a volcano.
  6. A prostitute or promiscuous woman; a slut.
  7. A coward.
  8. A contemptible person, a scumbag.

verb

  1. To produce slag.
  2. To become slag; to agglomerate when heated below the fusion point.
  3. To reduce to slag.
  4. To talk badly about; to malign or denigrate (someone).
  5. To make fun of; to take the piss (tease, ridicule or mock).
  6. To spit.

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle Low German slagge, slaggen (“slag, dross”), from Old Saxon *slaggo, from Proto-West Germanic *slaggō, from Proto-Germanic *slaggô, from Proto-Germanic *slagōną (“to strike”) + *-gô (diminutive suffix). Compare Middle Low German slāgen (“to strike”), since originally the splinters struck off from the metal by hammering, from *slagōn, from Proto-West Germanic *slagōn. Compare…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.