slabby
slabby adjective: of a liquid: thick; viscous.
Adjective (1)
slabby (comparative slabbier, superlative slabbiest)
- Of a liquid: thick; viscous.
- The Pope in sending Relicks to Princes, does as Wenches do by their Wassels at New-years-tide, they present you with a Cup, and you must drink of a slabby stuff; but the meaning is, you must give them Moneys, ten times more than it is worth.1696, John Selden, “Pope”, in Table-Talk, London: Jacob Tonson, page 127
- Of a surface: sloppy, slimy.
- When waggiſh Boys the ſtunted Beeſom ply, / To rid the ſlabby Pavement; paſs not by / E’er thou haſt held their Hands; ſome heedleſs Flirt / Will over-ſpread thy Calves with ſpatt’ring Dirt.[1716], [John] Gay, “Book II. Of Walking the Streets by Day.”, in Trivia: Or, The Art of Walking the Streets of London, London: […] Bernard Lintott, […], →OCLC, page 27
- I went down into the garden, intended to be prim and quaint, with avenues, and terraces, and orange-trees, and statues, and water in stone basins; and everything was green, gaunt, weedy, straggling, under grown or over grown, mildewy, damp, redolent of all sorts of slabby, clammy, creeping, and...1846, Charles Dickens, “Genoa and its Neighbourhood”, in Pictures from Italy, London: […] Bradbury & Evans, […], →OCLC, page 48
- Rainy, wet. (of weather)
- To Virgo, Leo turnes the time, and in a reaking sweate.
He buskling vp his burning Mane, doth dry the dropping south.
And swallowes vp the slabby cloudes in fyry foming mouth.1581, John Studley (translator), Hercules Oetaeus, Act I, in Seneca his Tenne Tragedies, Translated into Englysh, London: Thomas Marsh - […] I am only to caution our labourer as to the present work, that he do not stir the ground in over-wet and slabby weather […]1676, John Evelyn, A Philosophical Discourse of Earth, London: John Martyn, page 58
- To Virgo, Leo turnes the time, and in a reaking sweate.
Adjective (2)
slabby (comparative slabbier, superlative slabbiest)
- Composed of slabs; resembling a slab or slabs; inelegant, cumbersome, clunky.
- Then he set up another shop an’ hired some of us ’round here to go an’ make them big, slabby art-chairs.1905, Robert W. Chambers, Iole, New York: D. Appleton, page 3
- He was big and pink and slabby with muscle, but not very hairy, for a white man.1962, Richard McKenna, The Sand Pebbles, New York: Harper & Row, Chapter
- Characterized by smooth relatively low-angle rock face or slab that lacks significant vertical features.
Noun
slabby (plural slabbies)
- A worker who deals with timber in the form of slabs.
- The employer shall supply the sawyer and tailer-out at breast bench, workers operating goose-saws, and slabbies with suitable leather aprons for use while so employed. When requested by the worker a suitable apron shall be supplied to timber stackers, lorry drivers, and machinists.1982, New Zealand. Arbitration Court, Awards, Agreements, Orders, and Decisions Made Under the Industrial Relations Act, the Apprentices Act, and Other Industrial Legislation for the Year ..., volume...
- 'My husband worked in a sawmill,' said Gran. […] 'And his brother. Slabbies, both of them. What sort of work was that for men with brains?'2018, Kate De Goldi, Love, Charlie Mike
Forms of slabby
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | slabbier |
| superlative | slabbiest |
| Noun | |
| plural | slabbies |
Origin of slabby
From slab (“mud, sludge”) + -y.
From slab (“solid object that is large and flat”) + -y.
Words formed from slabby
Questions about slabby
- What does slabby mean?
- Slabby means of a liquid: thick; viscous.
- What part of speech is slabby?
- Slabby can be an adjective or a noun.
Words near slabby in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: slabby (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “slabby.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/slabby. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.