/slaɪs/
OriginFrom Middle English sclise, sklise, from Old French esclice, esclis (“a piece split off”), deverbal of esclicer, esclicier (“to splinter, split up”), from Frankish *slitjan (“to split up”), from Proto-Germanic *slitjaną, from Proto-Germanic *slītaną (“to split, tear apart”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleyd- (“to rend, injure, crumble”). Akin to Old High German sliz, gisliz (“a tear, rip”), Old High German slīȥan (“to tear”), Old English slītan (“to split up”), modern French éclisse. More at slite, slit.
- That which is thin and broad.
“I pulled in hand over hand on the cord, and when I judged myself near enough, rose at infinite risk to about half my height and thus commanded the roof and a slice of the interior of the cabin.”
- A thin, broad piece cut off.
“a slice of bacon; a slice of cheese; a slice of bread”
“Jim was munching on a slice of toast.”
- colloquialAn amount of anything.
“Blackpool, chasing a seventh win in 17 league matches, simply could not contain Sunderland's rampant attack and had to resort to a combination of last-ditch defending, fine goalkeeping and a large sli”
- A piece of pizza, shaped like a sector of a circle.
“For breakfast, lunch, or dinner, the best Guido meal is a slice and a Coke.”
- BritishA snack consisting of pastry with savoury filling.
“I bought a ham and cheese slice at the service station.”
- A broad, thin piece of plaster.
- A knife with a thin, broad blade for taking up or serving fish; also, a spatula for spreading anything, as paint or ink.
- A salver, platter, or tray.
- A plate of iron with a handle, forming a kind of chisel, or a spadelike implement, variously proportioned, and used for various purposes, as for stripping the planking from a vessel's side, for cutting blubber from a whale, or for stirring a fire of coals; a slice bar; a peel; a fire shovel.
- One of the wedges by which the cradle and the ship are lifted clear of the building blocks to prepare for launching.
- A removable sliding bottom to a galley.
- A shot that (for the right-handed player) curves unintentionally to the right. See fade, hook, draw.
- A kind of cut shot where the bat makes an obtuse angle with the batter.
- Australia, New-Zealand, UKAny of a class of heavy cakes or desserts made in a tray and cut out into squarish slices.
- A section of image taken of an internal organ using MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), CT (computed tomography), or various forms of x-ray.
- A hawk's or falcon's dropping which squirts at an angle other than vertical. (See mute.)
- A contiguous portion of an array.
- transitiveTo cut into slices.
“Slice the cheese thinly.”
- transitiveTo cut with an edge using a drawing motion.
“The knife left sliced his arm.”
- transitiveTo clear (e.g. a fire, or the grate bars of a furnace) by means of a slice bar.
- transitiveTo hit the shuttlecock with the racket at an angle, causing it to move sideways and downwards.
- transitiveTo hit a shot that slices (travels from left to right for a right-handed player).
- transitiveTo angle the blade so that it goes too deeply into the water when starting to take a stroke.
- transitiveTo kick the ball so that it goes in an unintended direction, at too great an angle or too high.
“Chris Brunt sliced the spot-kick well wide but his error was soon forgotten as Olsson headed home from a corner.”
- transitiveTo hit the ball with a stroke that causes a spin, resulting in the ball swerving or staying low after a bounce.
- not-comparableHaving the properties of a slice knot.
Formsslices(plural) · slices(present, singular, third-person) · slicing(participle, present) · sliced(participle, past) · sliced(past)