slip

pronunciation

How to pronounce slip in British English: UK [slɪp] word uk audio image

How to pronounce slip in American English: US [slɪp] word us audio image

Noun:

a socially awkward or tactless act
a minor inadvertent mistake usually observed in speech or writing or in small accidents or memory lapses etc.
potter's clay that is thinned and used for coating or decorating ceramics
a part (sometimes a root or leaf or bud) removed from a plant to propagate a new plant through rooting or grafting
a young and slender person
a place where a craft can be made fast
an accidental misstep threatening (or causing) a fall
a slippery smoothness
artifact consisting of a narrow flat piece of material
a small sheet of paper
a woman's sleeveless undergarment
bed linen consisting of a cover for a pillow
an unexpected slide
a flight maneuver; aircraft slides sideways in the air
the act of avoiding capture (especially by cunning)
Verb:

move stealthily
insert inconspicuously or quickly or quietly
move obliquely or sideways, usually in an uncontrolled manner
get worse
move smoothly and easily
to make a mistake or be incorrect
pass on stealthily
pass out of one's memory
move out of position

Word Origin

slip: slip: There are three separate words slip in English. The verb [13] was probably borrowed from Middle Low German slippen, a product of the prehistoric Germanic base *slip-. This in turn went back to Indo-European *sleib- (source also of English lubricate [17]), a variant of the base which gave English slide. Slippery [16] was based on an earlier and now defunct slipper ‘slippery’, which also goes back to Germanic *slip-.It may have been coined by the Bible translator Miles Coverdale, who used it in Psalm 34:6: ‘Let their way be dark and slippery’. It is thought that he modelled it on German schlipfferig ‘slippery’, used in the same passage by Martin Luther in his translation of the Bible. Slipper ‘soft shoe’ [15] was originally a shoe ‘slipped’ on to the foot; and someone who is slipshod [16] is etymologically wearing ‘loose shoes’. Slip ‘thinned clay’ [OE] is descended from Old English slypa ‘slime’, and may be related to slop [14].One of its earlier meanings was ‘dung’, which is fossilized in the second element of cowslip. Slip ‘strip, piece’ [15], as in a ‘slip of paper’, was probably borrowed from Middle Low German or Middle Dutch slippe ‘cut, slit, strip’.=> lubricate, slide; cowslip, slop

slip (v.): early 14c., "to escape, to move softly and quickly," from an unrecorded Old English word or cognate Middle Low German slippen "to glide, slide," from Proto-Germanic *slipan (cognates: Old High German slifan, Middle Dutch slippen, German schleifen "to glide, slide"), from PIE *sleib-, from root *(s)lei- "slimy, sticky, slippery" (see slime (n.)). From mid-14c. with senses "lose one's footing," "slide out of place," "fall into error or fault." Sense of "pass unguarded or untaken" is from mid-15c. That of "slide, glide" is from 1520s. Transitive sense from 1510s; meaning "insert surreptitiously" is from 1680s. Related: Slipped; slipping. To slip up "make a mistake" is from 1855; to slip through the net "evade detection" is from 1902.

slip (n.2): in various senses from slip (v.). Meaning "act of slipping" is from 1590s. Meaning "mistake, minor fault, blunder" is from 1610s. Sense of "woman's sleeveless garment" (1761) is from notion of something easily slipped on or off (compare sleeve). To give (someone) the slip "escape from" is from 1560s. Meaning "landing place for ships" is mid-15c.; more technical sense in ship-building is from 1769. Slip of the tongue (1725) is from earlier slip of the pen (1650s), which makes more sense as an image.

slip (n.1): mid-15c., "edge of a garment;" 1550s, "narrow strip," probably from Middle Low German or Middle Dutch slippe "cut, slit," possibly related to Old English toslifan "to split, cleave." Sense of "narrow piece of paper" (as in pink slip) in 1680s.

slip (n.3): "potter's clay," mid-15c., "mud, slime," from Old English slypa, slyppe "slime, paste, pulp, soft semi-liquid mass," related to slupan "to slip" (see sleeve).

slip (n.4): "sprig or twig for planting or grafting, small shoot," late 15c., of uncertain origin. Compare Middle Dutch slippe, German schlippe, schlipfe "cut, slit, strip." Hence "young person of small build" (1580s, as in a slip of a girl); see slip (n.1).

1. Often everyone is so busy that things get overlooked or slip through the cracks , " he says . "