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Oxford Thesaurus - An A-Z Dictionary Of Synonyms

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slabber: The wolf opened its slavering jaws.

--n. 2 drool, saliva, drivel, dribble, spit, spittle, Dialect slabber: The slaver formed on his lips as he raged on. 3 nonsense, drivel, rubbish, twaddle, piffle: The slaver spewed forth by the critics set her teeth on edge.

slaverý n. 1 slave ship, slave-trader: Conditions were so bad aboard the slavers that many of the poor souls died before reaching their destination. 2 blackbirder, slave-trader; White slaver,

pimp, panderer: He was ashamed that his grandfather had been a South Sea slaver.

slavery n. 1 enslavement, bondage, thraldom, thrall, enthralment, servitude, serfdom, vassalage, yoke; subjugation, captivity,

 

Historical US peculiar institution: All of those ancient

 

cultures that we venerate practised slavery. 2 slave-trade,

 

blackbirding: No one ever mentions that the family fortune had

 

been made from slavery. 3 toil, moil, drudgery, travail, grind,

 

strain, (hard) labour: She remembered the years of slavery she

 

had spent at the kitchen sink.

sleazy

adj. 1 unsubstantial or insubstantial, flimsy, slight, shabby,

 

poor, gimcrack, jerry-built, tawdry, cheap, tatty, ramshackle,

 

rickety, slipshod, Colloq US chintzy: Her garish dress was made

 

from some sleazy synthetic material. 2 disreputable, low-class,

 

low-grade, squalid, dirty, base, seedy, sordid, contemptible,

 

trashy, run-down, mean, cheap, Colloq crummy, slummy, Slang

 

crappy, cheesy: He was lying low in a sleazy hotel while the

 

police searched for him.

sleek

adj. 1 smooth, slick, velvety, lustrous, shiny, shining,

 

glossy, silky, silken: The seals' sleek fur glistened in the

 

sunlight. 2 graceful, trim, streamlined: For her birthday

 

Edmund gave her a sleek convertible. 3 suave, unctuous, slimy,

 

fawning, oily, specious, hypocritical, Chiefly Brit smarmy: His

 

explanations sounded plausible enough, but we soon found out

 

what a sleek rogue he really was.

sleep

v. 1 doze, (take a) nap, catnap, rest, repose, slumber, drowse,

 

drop or nod off, be in the land of Nod, be in the arms of

 

Morpheus, snore, Colloq snooze, saw wood, catch or log a few

 

zees (Z's), take or have a zizz, catch forty winks: I was so

tired, I slept for a full ten hours.

--n. 2 nap, doze, slumber, rest, siesta, Colloq forty winks, snooze, zizz, beauty sleep: As she grew older, she found she needed less sleep.

sleepless adj. 1 restless, wakeful, insomniac, disturbed: Your mother and I spent a sleepless night worrying about you. 2 alert, watchful, vigilant, unsleeping: Mark's wife kept a sleepless vigil at his bedside.

sleepwalking

n. 1 noctambulism, somnambulism, noctambulation, somnambulation: Because of his sleepwalking, he had to be strapped in at night.

--adj. 2 noctambulant, somnambulant: Proper drugs will control her sleepwalking activities.

sleepy adj. 1 drowsy, somnolent, tired, nodding, dozy, lethargic, torpid, slumberous, sluggish, oscitant; weary, fatigued, exhausted, Colloq dead on one's feet, (knocked) out, beat, US and Canadian pooped: All that exercise has made me sleepy. 2 boring, inactive, dull, quiet, soporific, slow, sluggish: He

grew up in a sleepy little village in the Outer Hebrides.

slender adj. 1 slim, lean, willowy, sylphlike, svelte, lissom or lissome, lithe, graceful, snake-hipped, thin, spare, slight, lanky: By exercising regularly, she has retained her slender figure. 2 slim, narrow, slight, poor, unlikely, small, little, scanty, remote, meagre, weak, feeble: Prospects for a quick recovery of the stock market are slender. 3 slim, slight, little, scanty, inadequate, insufficient, insignificant,

trifling: The evidence against the defendant was too slender for a conviction.

sleuth n. detective, (private) detective, (private) investigator, US P.I., Colloq private eye, Sherlock, snoop, Brit tec or 'tec, US hawkshaw, Slang US dick, shamus, US and Canadian gumshoe: Dissatisfied with the progress of the police, we hired a private sleuth to investigate the theft.

slice n. 1 slab, piece, rasher, collop, shaving, layer, Cookery

scallop, escalope, scaloppine (pl. of scaloppina) or scaloppini (pl.): May I have another slice of ham? 2 portion, piece, part, wedge, share, sliver, helping: He wants to make certain he gets his slice of the pie. 3 spatula; slicer: The Cabots gave us a silver fish slice for a wedding present.

--v. 4 cut, carve, divide: They watched their mother slicing bread for sandwiches.

slick adj. 1 smooth, sleek, glossy, silky, silken, shiny, shining, glassy, slippery: His slick hair looked as if it had been greased. 2 smooth, urbane, suave, smooth-spoken, glib, smug,

plausible; sycophantic, unctuous, Colloq smarmy: Thomas was a slick operator and managed to worm his way into a position of power. 3 smooth, clever, skilful, adroit, dexterous,

professional, ingenious, imaginative, inventive, creative, Colloq neat: The performance was slick and well-rehearsed. 4 superficial, shallow, meretricious, specious, glib: They have made a lot of money publishing slick magazines for the yuppy market.

--v. 5 Often, slick down. smooth, plaster down, grease, oil: He likes his hair slicked down to look like Valentino's.

slicker n. 1 confidence man or woman, cheat, swindler, mountebank, Colloq con man, city slicker: That slicker she met in Paris tricked Harriet out of a lot of money before he disappeared. 2 oilskin (raincoat): Best wear your slicker if you're going out

in this storm, James.

slide v. 1 glide, slip; coast, skim, glissade, skate, plane, skid, toboggan, slither: The drawer slid smoothly out on its runners. Terry came sliding down the icy hill, arms and legs flailing. 2 creep, steal, slip, slink, move: My contact slid into the seat beside me and slipped me a note. 3 decline, decrease, drop, fall: Shares slid to an all-time low on this morning's market.

4 let slide. forget, ignore, neglect, gloss or pass over, pay no heed or mind (to): When Mr Bartlett borrowed my lawnmower, I let the matter slide till he began to think of it as his own,

and offered to lend it to me!

--n. 5 landslide, earth-slip, avalanche, mud-slide: A dozen houses were destroyed in the slides caused by the recent

torrential rains.

slight adj. 1 small, little, minor, negligible, unlikely,

insignificant, inconsequential: There is always a slight chance that you might be wrong, you know. 2 trifling, tiny, slender, minute, infinitesimal; trace, perceptible: He didn't attach the slightest importance to the rumours that were going round. You'd best wash it again, as there is still a slight odour of garlic.

3 small, short, petite, thin, slim, slender, delicate,

diminutive, tiny, miniature, bantam, wee, pocket, pocket-sized, US vest-pocket, Colloq pint-sized: Charlotte's slight build seems totally unaffected by the amount she eats. 4 insubstantial or unsubstantial, weak, feeble, delicate, dainty, frail,

unstable, fragile, flimsy, lightly made or built, precarious, inadequate, rickety, insecure: This table is too slight to support the computer and the printer. His arguments were far too slight to carry conviction.

--v. 5 disregard, ignore, disdain, scorn, snub, rebuff, cut, disrespect, cold-shoulder: He thought she had slighted him deliberately at the dance. 6 insult, offend, affront, mortify, diminish, minimize, depreciate, disparage: Siobhan felt slighted by Harry's inattention.

--n. 7 insult, affront, slur, indignity, outrage, offence, disrespect: It is hard to understand why she tolerates his persistent slights. 8 inattention, neglect, disregard, indifference, snub, cold shoulder, coldness, ill-treatment: Perhaps she misinterprets his obsessive occupation in his work as a slight to her.

slightly adv. a little, somewhat, to a certain or slight or minor extent or degree or measure, marginally: Yes, I do feel slightly better, thank you.

slim

adj. 1 See slender, 1, above. 2 See slender, 2, 3, above.

--v. 3 reduce, lose or shed weight, diet, Chiefly US slenderize: I really must slim if I am to fit into my summer clothes.

slimy adj. 1 oozy, slippery, mucky, squashy, squishy, viscous, sticky, gluey, mucilaginous, uliginous, glutinous, mucous,

 

clammy, mushy, US squushy or squooshy, Colloq gooey, gunky, US

 

gloppy: He had cleverly buried the bag of diamonds in a mass of

 

slimy waste where no one would want to look. 2 slippery,

 

unctuous, obsequious, sycophantic, toadying, servile, creeping,

 

grovelling, abject, Colloq smarmy: I don't mind his trying to

 

sell me insurance, but why does he have to be so slimy about it?

sling

v. 1 toss, throw, cast, propel, hurl, shy, fling, fire, shoot,

 

pitch, let fly, launch, heave, lob, Colloq chuck: He slung his

 

briefcase onto the desk and flopped into a chair.

 

--n. 2 slingshot, catapult, trebuchet or trebucket: It is said

 

that David slew Goliath with a stone from his sling. 3 support,

 

strap, band; belt: The doctor ordered him to keep his sprained

 

arm in a sling for a few days. The military rifles are supplied

 

with leather slings.

slink

v. sneak, creep, steal, prowl, skulk: The dog slunk out of the

 

room with its tail between its legs.

slip°

v. 1 slide, skid, glide, slither: Waxing the runners helps the

 

sleigh slip along more easily. 2 stumble, lose one's footing or

 

balance, miss one's footing, trip; fall, tumble: Mother slipped

 

on the ice but luckily didn't fall down. 3 Often, slip up. err,

 

blunder, make a mistake, miscalculate, go wrong, botch (up),

 

Slang screw up: He slipped up again by failing to give you your

 

telephone messages. 4 let slip. reveal, divulge, blurt out,

 

leak, let out, disclose, expose, Colloq come out with, blab: He

 

accidentally let slip the news that you were back in town. 5

 

slip away or by. pass, elapse, vanish, go by: The hours just

 

slipped away when I was with Irena. 6 slip away or off or out.

 

escape, disappear, leave, vanish, steal, go or run away or off

 

or out, break away, get away, give (someone) the slip; sneak

 

away or off or out: After the speech, he slipped away before we

 

could interview him. 7 slip in. enter, get in, sneak in; put

 

in: A field mouse slipped in past the wire netting. I managed

 

to slip in my suggestion before the meeting was adjourned.

 

--n. 8 blunder, error, mistake, fault, oversight, slip of the

 

tongue or pen, inadvertence, indiscretion, impropriety,

 

transgression, peccadillo, faux pas, Colloq slip-up, Chiefly US

 

blooper, Slang Brit boob, bloomer: She made so many slips in

 

the letter that she had to retype it.

slipý n. 1 piece, scrap, strip, sliver; paper, note, chit, permit, permission, pass, document: I'll put my phone number on this slip of paper. To go on the outing, each child will have to bring in a slip signed by a parent. 2 shoot, scion, cutting, sprig, twig, sprout, runner, offshoot: After the slip is inserted, the branch must be bandaged up firmly.

slippery adj. 1 slick, sleek, slimy, icy, glassy, smooth, greasy, oily, lubricated, Colloq skiddy: Be careful! Those stairs can be slippery when they're wet. 2 evasive, devious, shifty, unreliable, undependable, questionable, untrustworthy, dishonest, treacherous, disloyal, perfidious, slick, crafty,

sly, foxy, cunning, tricky, sneaky, false, reptilian, faithless, Colloq shady: I have dealt with some very slippery characters over the years, but this one is downright evil.

slipshod adj. careless, slovenly, slapdash, haphazard, messy, untidy, disorganized, lax, unorganized, Colloq sloppy: We refused to pay the bill because of the slipshod way they did the repairs.

slit v. 1 split, cut, slash, gash, knife, slice: The bark of the log is first slit OBopen, then carefully peeled back.

--n. 2 split, cut, gash, incision, fissure, groove, slash, cleft, aperture, opening: Off-stage, the rest of the actors were watching the audience through a slit in the curtain.

slither v. slide, worm, snake, slip, slink, glide, skitter, creep, crawl: After regarding me for a moment, the cobra turned and slithered away.

sliver n. fragment, piece, shard, shred, splinter, slip, shaving, paring, flake, chip, bit, scrap, snippet, snip: Two weeks later, we were still finding tiny slivers of glass from the broken vase.

slob

n. oaf, boor, pig, lout, churl, yahoo, Slang Brit yob, yobbo,

Chiefly US galoot or galloot, Slobbovian: He was a complete

slob - he never tidied his room, and hardly ever washed.

slogan

n. war cry, battle-cry, rallying cry, catchword, watchword;

motto: The magazine's slogan was 'If you love words, you'll

love Word '.

slope v. 1 incline, decline, ascend, descend, rise, fall, dip, sink, drop (off), angle, slant, pitch, tilt, tip: The lawn slopes downwards from the house, then upwards towards that grove of trees.

--n. 2 incline, decline, ascent, descent, acclivity, declivity, rise, fall, ramp, dip, sink, drop, angle, slant, pitch, tilt, rake, tip, camber, cant, grade, bevel, hill, bank, mount,

gradient, US grade, upgrade, downgrade: Sheep can be seen grazing on the grassy slopes.

sloppy adj. 1 messy, dirty, slovenly, careless, slipshod, untidy, disordered, disorderly; draggle-tailed, bedraggled, dishevelled,

 

unkempt, dowdy, frumpish, shabby, scruffy, Colloq US grungy:

 

She is certainly a sloppy housekeeper. John's teacher complained

 

about his sloppy work. 2 wet, slushy, watery, soggy, soppy,

 

sopping, sodden, sloshy, muddy, rainy: The roads were sloppy

 

after all the rain. You're lucky you don't have to go out in

 

this sloppy weather. 3 sentimental, gushy, gushing, mawkish,

 

maudlin, mushy, over-emotional, Colloq slushy, Brit wet, soppy:

 

She starts to cry whenever she watches a sloppy film on TV.

slot

n. 1 groove, fissure, notch, slit, opening, hollow, depression,

 

channel, sulcus: Each of these pieces fits into its own slot.

 

Drop a coin in the slot and watch what happens. 2 opening,

 

position, vacancy, job, place, assignment, niche, space, spot,

 

pigeon-hole: We filled that slot in the sales department. They

 

scheduled the new programme into the half-hour slot after the

 

six o'clock news.

 

--v. 3 groove, fissure, notch, slit, hollow out: We slotted

 

the stanchions to accommodate the shelf brackets. 4 assign,

 

schedule, place, position, pigeon-hole, fit: Can we slot this

 

interview into the documentary on China?

sloth

n. idleness, laziness, indolence, slothfulness, inertia,

 

apathy, indifference, accidie, torpor, faineance, pococurantism,

 

torpidity, sluggishness, languor, languidness, lethargy, phlegm,

 

Rare hebetude: The maharajahs lived a life of sloth and luxury

 

at the expense of their poverty-stricken subjects.

slothful adj. idle, lazy, indolent, apathetic, indifferent, torpid, inert, pococurante, slack, lax, shiftless, fain‚ant, inactive, do-nothing, sluggish, sluggard(ly), slow, laggard, languorous, languid, lethargic, lackadaisical, phlegmatic, hebetudinous:

One cannot pursue a slothful attitude and expect to get anywhere in life.

slouch v. 1 droop, sag, stoop, loll, slump, hunch: Sit up straight and stop slouching.

 

--n. 2 stoop, sag, droop, slump, hunch: He seems to have

 

developed a slouch from the burden of his responsibilities. 3

 

Usually, no slouch. sloven, loafer, sluggard, laggard, loafer,

 

idler, malingerer, lazybones: Nellie is certainly no slouch

 

when it comes to exercising to keep fit.

slow

adj. 1 lagging, laggard, dawdling, sluggish, sluggard(ly),

 

slow-moving, leaden, ponderous, unhurried, plodding, snail-like,

 

tortoise-like, torpid, leaden-footed, creeping, crawling;

 

deliberate, slow-paced, leisurely, gradual, easy, relaxed, lax,

 

lackadaisical, lazy, US lallygagging or lollygagging: They

 

walked at a slow pace back to the house. Philip has become a

 

little slower in his old age. 2 gradual, progressive, moderate,

 

perceptible, almost imperceptible, measurable: The church

 

elders have noted a slow decline in moral standards. 3

 

unhurried, slow-moving, slow-paced: The slow funeral cortege

 

crept through the streets. 4 behindhand, unpunctual: I missed

 

the train because my watch is five minutes slow. 5 late, tardy,

 

behindhand, dilatory, delayed, unpunctual: You were so slow in

 

getting here that everyone has gone. 6 slack, inactive, quiet,

 

sluggish, unproductive: Business is always a bit slow after the

 

holidays. 7 dense, dull, slow-witted, dull-witted, obtuse,

 

backward, bovine, dim, dim-witted, stupid, unresponsive,

 

blockish, cloddish, unintelligent, doltish, simple, stolid,

 

unimaginative, Boeotian, Colloq slow on the uptake, thick, dumb:

 

I'm afraid I'm a bit slow when it comes to particle physics. 8

 

conservative, unprogressive, old-fashioned, out of date,

 

backward, old-fogyish or old-fogeyish, behind the times, Colloq

 

square, not with it, past it, US out of it: The council has

 

been rather slow in realizing the needs of the community. 9

 

boring, dull, tiresome, ennuyant, tedious, dead, sleepy,

 

somnolent, torpid, soporific, wearisome, dry-as-dust,

 

uninteresting, monotonous, tame, uneventful, humdrum, Colloq

ho-hum, dead, Brit dead-and-alive: This town becomes really slow in the autumn, till the tourists reappear in the spring. 10 reluctant, not quick, unwilling, hesitant, disinclined, averse, loath or loth, indisposed: Even when provoked, Cassie tends to be slow to anger.

--adv. 11 slowly, unhurriedly, cautiously, carefully, circumspectly: He failed his test because he drove too slow. 12 behindhand, tardily, late, unpunctually: All the trains seem to be running a bit slow tonight. 13 slowly, easy, leisurely, easily: They told him to take things slower or he'd have another heart attack.

--v. 14 Often, slow down or up. slack or slacken off, reduce speed, hold back, put on the brakes, take it easy: You'd better slow down before you come to Deadman's Hill. 15 relax, take it easy, Colloq ease up: The doctor suggested that at my age I ought to slow down a little.

sludge n. muck, mire, ooze, mud, slime, dregs, silt, residue, precipitate, Colloq goo: The mechanic said that there was a lot of sludge in the engine.

sluggishness

 

n. sloth, laziness, slothfulness, languor, lassitude, lethargy,

 

languidness, laggardness, torpor, phlegm, lifelessness,

 

stagnation, shiftlessness, pococurantism, faineance, accidie,

 

Rare hebetude: A few days' golfing in Scotland will help to

 

shake off the sluggishness of your Caribbean holiday.

slum

n. Often, slums. ghetto, warren, shanty town, US skid row or

 

Skid Road: Many very famous men emerged from the slums of the

 

Lower East Side in New York.

slump

n. 1 dip, trough, depreciation, decline, downturn, downslide,

 

recession, depression, falling-off, fall-off, fall, drop,

 

plunge, descent, crash, collapse, failure; nosedive, tailspin:

 

A slump in the housing market was one of the early signs of the

 

impending recession. The market went into a slump this morning

 

from which it barely recovered before closing.

 

--v. 2 decline, slip, recede, fall (off), drop, plunge,

 

descend, sink, crash, collapse, dive, plummet, take or go into a

 

nosedive or tailspin: Prices on the stock market slumped

 

following announcement of a rise in interest rates. 3 See

 

slouch, 1, above.

slur

n. 1 smear, insult, calumny, aspersion, affront, stigma, stain,

 

blot, spot, (black) mark, discredit, insinuation, innuendo,

 

imputation, slander, libel, slight, Colloq put-down: She

 

resents any slur on her husband's character.

 

--v. 2 mumble, misarticulate, garble, stutter, lisp: Some

 

people nowadays slur their speech so badly that one can hardly

 

understand them. 3 slur over. gloss over, pass over, disregard,

 

give short shrift to, ignore: The eulogies at the memorial

 

service slurred over his faults and focused on his

 

accomplishments.

sly

adj. 1 cunning, artful, crafty, clever, wily, guileful,

 

underhand(ed), deceitful, treacherous, foxy, scheming, plotting,

 

designing, conniving, furtive, shrewd, sneaky, stealthy,

 

insidious, devious, disingenuous, tricky, shifty, sharp, canny,

 

Colloq shady: It was devilishly sly of him to manoeuvre you

 

into paying for his party. 2 impish, elfish, roguish,

 

mischievous, puckish, devilish, scampish, naughty, arch,

 

waggish: Even as he was flirting with Allison he was giving

 

Antonia sly, conspiratorial winks.

 

--n. 3 on the sly. slyly or slily, quietly, surreptitiously,

 

covertly, stealthily, furtively, sneakily, underhandedly,

 

clandestinely, Colloq on the q.t. or Q.T., on the side:

 

Although her parents had forbidden her to see him again, Antonia

 

continued to meet Kevin on the sly.

19.8 small...

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

small adj. 1 little, tiny, short, diminutive, petite, mignon(ne), wee, teeny, elfin, Lilliputian, midget, miniature, minute, minuscule, baby, bantam, pocket(-sized), mini; undersized,

immature, young, under age; Colloq pint-sized, US peewee: She was once small enough to fit into a size 7. When I was very small, my father took me to my first cricket match. 2 slight, secondary, insignificant, trivial, inconsequential, lesser,