Library / English Dictionary

SLIT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: slitting   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A long narrow opening

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("slit" is a kind of...):

opening (a vacant or unobstructed space that is man-made)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "slit"):

jag (a slit in a garment that exposes material of a different color underneath; used in Renaissance clothing)

slot (a small slit (as for inserting a coin or depositing mail))

vent (a slit in a garment (as in the back seam of a jacket))

Derivation:

slit (cut a slit into)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Obscene terms for female genitals

Synonyms:

cunt; puss; pussy; slit; snatch; twat

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Hypernyms ("slit" is a kind of...):

fanny; female genital organ; female genitalia; female genitals (external female sex organs)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A narrow fissure

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("slit" is a kind of...):

cleft; crack; crevice; fissure; scissure (a long narrow opening)

Derivation:

slit (cut a slit into)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A depression scratched or carved into a surface

Synonyms:

dent; incision; prick; scratch; slit

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

Hypernyms ("slit" is a kind of...):

depression; impression; imprint (a concavity in a surface produced by pressing)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "slit"):

score; scotch (a slight surface cut (especially a notch that is made to keep a tally))

Derivation:

slit (cut a slit into)

slit (make a clean cut through)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cut a slit into

Example:

slit the throat of the victim

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

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

incise (make an incision into by carving or cutting)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

slit (a long narrow opening)

slit (a narrow fissure)

slit (a depression scratched or carved into a surface)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make a clean cut through

Example:

slit her throat

Synonyms:

slice; slit

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

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

cut (separate with or as if with an instrument)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

slit (a depression scratched or carved into a surface)

Credits

 Context examples: 

It was a solemn place, for the walls were so gigantic and the slit of blue sky so narrow and so obscured by a double fringe of verdure, that only a dim and shadowy light penetrated to the bottom.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The line moving across the middle of the movie is the entrance slit for IRIS's spectrograph, an instrument that can split light into its many wavelengths – a technique that ultimately allows scientists to measure temperature, velocity and density of the solar material behind the slit.

(Observing a Gigantic Eruption of Solar Material, NASA)

There were two pockets which we could not enter: these he called his fobs; they were two large slits cut into the top of his middle cover, but squeezed close by the pressure of his belly.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The researchers determined that cells deform significantly as they cross the narrow splenic slit.

(How the spleen keeps blood healthy, NIH)

It was lit within by slits under the eaves.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There was no slit through which a knife could be passed to raise the bar.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

His pulse was feeble and intermittent, but his breathing grew longer, and there was a little shivering of his eyelids, which showed a thin white slit of ball beneath.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But the fatal blow never fell, for even as his arm quivered before descending, the Spaniard gave a shudder, and stiffening himself rolled heavily over upon his side, with the blood gushing from his armpit and from the slit of his vizor.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The work showed how the splenic slit determines the size and shape distributions of healthy red blood cells.

(How the spleen keeps blood healthy, NIH)

Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting specimen of the London slavey.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)