slay
pronunciation
How to pronounce slay in British English:
UK [sleɪ]
How to pronounce slay in American English:
US [sle]
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- Verb:
- kill intentionally and with premeditation
Word Origin
- slay
- slay: [OE] Etymologically, slay means ‘hit’ (its German relative schlagen still does), but from the earliest Old English times it was also used for ‘kill’. It comes from a prehistoric Germanic base *slakh-, *slag-, *slög- ‘hit’, which also produced English onslaught, slaughter, the sledge of sledgehammer, sleight, sly, and possibly slag [16] (from the notion of ‘hitting’ rock to produce fragments), slog, and slug ‘hit’.=> onslaught, slaughter, sledge, sleight, sly
- slay (v.)
- Old English slean "to smite, strike, beat," also "to kill with a weapon, slaughter" (class VI strong verb; past tense sloh, slog, past participle slagen), from Proto-Germanic *slahan, from root *slog- "to hit" (cognates: Old Norse and Old Frisian sla, Danish slaa, Middle Dutch slaen, Dutch slaan, Old High German slahan, German schlagen, Gothic slahan "to strike"). The Germanic words are from PIE root *slak- "to strike" (cognates: Middle Irish past participle slactha "struck," slacc "sword"). Modern German cognate schlagen maintains the original sense of "to strike." Meaning "overwhelm with delight" (mid-14c.) preserves one of the wide range of meanings the word once had, including, in Old English, "stamp (coins); forge (weapons); throw, cast; pitch (a tent), to sting (of a snake); to dash, rush, come quickly; play (the harp); gain by conquest."
- slay (n.)
- "instrument on a weaver's loom to beat up the weft," Old English slæ, slea, slahae, from root meaning "strike" (see slay (v.)), so called from "striking" the web together. Hence the surname Slaymaker "maker of slays."
Example
- 1. The river-horses raged against us and sought to slay us .
- 2. Fortunately , a dragon most easy to slay .
- 3. I 'll hunt the monsters downand slay them all !
- 4. For the most part , talons slay man , woman and child wholeheartedly , but they do so quickly .
- 5. And I will kill your root by famine , and he will slay your remnant .