Library / English Dictionary

SLAY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: slain    , slew   

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Kill intentionally and with premeditation

Example:

The mafia boss ordered his enemies murdered

Synonyms:

bump off; dispatch; hit; murder; off; polish off; remove; slay

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "slay" is one way to...):

kill (cause to die; put to death, usually intentionally or knowingly)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "slay"):

burke (murder without leaving a trace on the body)

execute (murder in a planned fashion)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

Sam cannot slay Sue

Derivation:

slayer (someone who causes the death of a person or animal)

slaying (unlawful premeditated killing of a human being by a human being)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Such arrows were of little avail to the hunter who attacked the beast, because their action in that torpid circulation was slow, and before its powers failed it could certainly overtake and slay its assailant.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I know poetry is not dead, nor genius lost; nor has Mammon gained power over either, to bind or slay: they will both assert their existence, their presence, their liberty and strength again one day.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The day had been dull and overcast, but the sun now burst through the clouds, a welcome omen, and shone upon the curving beach where together we had dared the lords of the harem and slain the holluschickie.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The low justice means that you may fleece him, and the middle that you may torture him, and the high that you may slay him.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Also, he held White Fang's nose down to the slain hens, and at the same time cuffed him soundly.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

And he thought of Oona, and of her words: "And when the fighting begins, it is for thee, Negore, to crawl secretly away so that thou be not slain."

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

It was long ere I could close an eye, and heaven knows I had matter enough for thought in the man whom I had slain that afternoon, in my own most perilous position, and above all, in the remarkable game that I saw Silver now engaged upon—keeping the mutineers together with one hand and grasping with the other after every means, possible and impossible, to make his peace and save his miserable life.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

You have a slew of planets stacked up in your ninth house, which rules the media, publishing, broadcasting, international travel and relationships, university study, and legal and philosophical matters—and all these areas will shine brilliantly for you for each will support your Taurus Sun sign.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

My conjecture had been correct: the strangers had slipped in before us, and they now stood by the vault of the Rochesters, their backs towards us, viewing through the rails the old time-stained marble tomb, where a kneeling angel guarded the remains of Damer de Rochester, slain at Marston Moor in the time of the civil wars, and of Elizabeth, his wife.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

With yells of triumph the Indians came flocking down from their caves and danced a frenzied dance of victory round the dead bodies, in mad joy that two more of the most dangerous of all their enemies had been slain.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)