Slash Meaning
/slaʃ/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA slashing action or motion:
nounA slashing action or motion:, A swift, broad cutting stroke, especially one made with an edged weapon or whip.
Sentence Examples
I'll slash your tires!
Did you slash Tom's tires?
Use a forward slash in the URL, not a backward slash.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The angry man used a knife to ____ the tires of the parked car.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The adventurer had to use a sharp machete to ____ through the thick jungle vines.
Word Origin & History
Late Middle English, originally a verb of uncertain etymology. Perhaps of imitative origin, or possibly from Old French esclachier (“to break in pieces”), a variant of esclater, which is likely a Germanic borrowing, from Frankish *slaitan (“to slit, tear”). Used in the Wycliffe Bible as slascht (see 1 Kings 5:18) but otherwise unattested until 16th century. Conjunctive use from various applications of the punctuation mark ⟨/⟩. See also slash fiction.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"We passed over the shoulder of a ridge and around the edge of a fire slash, and then we had the mountain fairly before us."
— 1895, Henry Van Dyke, Little Rivers: A Book of Essays in Profitable Idleness:
"Initial inquiries among professional typists uncover names like slant, slant line, slash, and slash mark. Examination of typing instruction manuals discloses additional names such as diagonal and diagonal mark, and other sources provide the designation oblique."
— 1965, Dmitri A. Borgmann, Language on Vacation, page 240:
"Comments merely allow readers to proclaim themselves mortally offended by the content of a story, despite having been warned in large block letters of INCEST or SLASH (any kind of sex between two men or two women: the term originated with the Kirk/Spock pairing – it described the literal slash between their names)."
— 2013, Katherine Arcement, “Diary”, in London Review of Books, volume 35, number 5:
"Having read slash for other fandoms (mainly X-Files and Sentinel), I can say the whole gay issue gets dealt with more often in that slash than it does in Trek slash. That's not to say that all the slashers who slash in a "modern-era" show deal with AIDS, homophobia and other gay issues, but some of them do."
— 1997 December 17, ASCEM, quoting Ruth Gifford, “Re: An Interesting Question, re Slash vs. Gay Fiction”, in alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated (Usenet):
"What this, the Slashie, means is that you consider me the best actor slash model and not the other way around."
— 2001, Drake Sather, Ben Stiller, John Hamburg, Zoolander, spoken by Fabio Lanzoni:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The angry man used a knife to ____ the tires of the parked car.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The adventurer had to use a sharp machete to ____ through the thick jungle vines.