slay

CEFRB2

/sleɪ/

verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To kill, especially in a violent way.

  2. 02

    verb

    Extra detail

    To defeat; to overcome (in a competition or contest).

Examples

  • Slay the prince and come back to us!

  • We have to get to the dragon and slay it to rescue the princess!

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings

  1. To eradicate or stamp out.

  2. To kill; to murder.

  3. To amaze, stun, or otherwise incapacitate by excellence; to excel at something.

More examples

In context

  • His jokes really slay me.

  • Our foes must all be slain.

  • The knight slew the dragon.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The brave knight used his sword to blank the dragon terrorizing the village.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

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”), Gothi...