Word.ws English Dictionary

slag

UK/ˈslæɡ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/ˈslaɡ/

slag noun: waste material from a mine.

Noun

slag (countable and uncountable, plural slags)

  1. Waste material from a mine.
    • After the big village, the scenery had returned to grass and woodland, but this had now given way to ugly mounds of discarded slag. Beyond the slag was a colliery with its machinery and smoking chimney, making the whole area look grim and austere.2011, Vivienne Dockerty, A Woman Undefeated, page 54
    Synonyms:
    goafing, gobbin, mullock
  2. Scum that forms on the surface of molten metal.
    • In Asia Minor and on islands in the Aegean Sea, dumps of slag (scum formed by molten metal surface oxidation) demonstrate that silver was being separated from lead as early as 5000 BC.2006, Melisa W. Lai, Michele Burns Ewald, Chapter 95: Silver, Martin J. Wonsiewicz, Karen G. Edmonson, Peter J. Boyle (editors), Goldfrank′s Toxicologic Emergencies, 8th Edition, page 1358
    • He leans out over the track and skims slag off the top of the boiling steel, risking what is called “catching a flyer,” which occurs when hot metal explodes out of the mold, spraying everyone in the vicinity.2009, John Hoerr, Monongahela Dusk, page 255
    Synonyms:
    dross
  3. Impurities formed and separated out when a metal is smelted from ore; vitrified cinders.
    • Buried within the Mediterranean littoral are some seventy to ninety million tons of slag from ancient smelting, about a third of it concentrated in Iberia. This ceaseless industrial fueling caused the deforestation of an estimated fifty to seventy million acres of woodlands.2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion
    • Consequently, mounds of large ‘cakes’ of slag are often found near the smelting sites of the Late Bronze Age, as for example at Ramsau in Austria (Doonan et al. 1996).2008, Barbara S. Ottaway, Ben Roberts, “The Emergence of Metalworking”, in Andrew Jones, editor, Prehistoric Europe: Theory and Practice, page 207
    Synonyms:
    dross, recrement, scoria
  4. Hard aggregate remaining as a residue from blast furnaces, sometimes used as a surfacing material.
    • During blast furnace operations, the plant operator pays careful attention to the slag chemistry (both composition and variability) as slag behavior is a major consideration in ensuring the quality of hot metal (molten iron).2006, Jan R. Prusinski, “44: Slag as a Cementitious Material”, in Joseph F. Lamond, James H. Pielert, editors, Significance of Tests and Properties of Concrete and Concrete-Making Materials, page 517
    • All these properties are determined by slag composition and its temperature. In basic slags, foaming ability increases as SiO₂ concentration grows.2010, Yuri N. Toulouevski, Ilyaz Y. Zinurov, Innovation in Electric Arc Furnaces, Springer, page 16
    Synonyms:
    clinker
  5. Scoria associated with a volcano.
    Synonyms:
    clinker
  6. (Australia, Ireland, UK, derogatory, slang) A prostitute or promiscuous woman; a slut.
    • We never talked about that, of course; we talked about how we could find a woman in the Dilly, and if the Yanks had taken them all, how we could always resort to the peroxided older slags who hung out around the side doors to Waterloo station and did knee tremblers for the Yanks.1984, Tristan Jones, Heart of Oak, 1997, paperback edition, page 260
    • Which grotesque auld hing-oot will the shrivelled post-menopausal slag want tae shaft? Stay tuned.1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 252
    Synonyms:
    hussy, skank, NB: All terms are usually pejorative unless stated otherwise., 304, alley cat, alleycat, amorette, amoret, amorosa, article
  7. (Ireland, UK, dated, derogatory) A coward.
  8. (Cockney, Ireland, UK, derogatory) A contemptible person, a scumbag.
    • The writers took it for granted that England, with its working class composed of slags, purple-nosed losers, and animals fed on pinball, pornography and junk-food, was disintegrating into terminal class-struggle.1990, Hanif Kureishi, The Buddha of Suburbia, London; Boston: Faber and Faber, →ISBN, page 207
    • The sycophantic slags all say / "I knew him first, and I knew him well"1987, “Paint a Vulgar Picture”, in Morrissey (lyrics), Johnny Marr (music), Strangeways, Here We Come, performed by The Smiths

Verb

slag (third-person singular simple present slags, present participle slagging, simple past and past participle slagged)

  1. (transitive) To produce slag.
  2. (intransitive) To become slag; to agglomerate when heated below the fusion point.
  3. (transitive) To reduce to slag.
  4. (UK, slang, transitive) To talk badly about; to malign or denigrate (someone).
    • If you slag off the other person, then—to the extent that your child identifies with that person as their parent—you are slagging off a part of them.2010, Courtenay Young, Help Yourself Towards Mental Health, page 344
    • Rather than wait for her to start slagging my mother, I would disappear for a couple of days and inevitably, because I was getting no love at home, I began to stray once again.2011, John Davies, Slings and Arrows, page 109
  5. (Ireland, slang, transitive) To make fun of; to take the piss (tease, ridicule or mock).
  6. (Australia, intransitive, slang) To spit.
    Synonyms:
    expectorate

slag meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

slag in Hindi

स्लैग, स्लेग

slag in Tamil

மண்டி கீச்சுக்கிட்டமண்டி, கசடு, சிட்டம், கழிவுப்பொருள், கழிவு, அத்தாதுவுடன் கல்கரி

slag in Marathi

स्लॅग

slag in Urdu

سلیگ
More languagesFewer languages
slag in Bengali
ধাতুমল, আবর্জনা
slag in Telugu
స్లాగ్
slag in Malayalam
സ്ലാഗ്
slag in Kannada
ಸ್ಲ್ಯಾಗ್, ಸ್ಲಾಗ್, ಸ್ಲ್ಯಾಗ್ ಮಾಡಲು
slag in Punjabi
ਸਲੈਗ, ਸਲੈੱਗ
slag in Gujarati
સ્લેગ, સ્લૅગ
slag in Odia
ସ୍ଲାଗ୍
slag in Nepali
स्ल्याग, स्लेग, स्ल्याग गर्न
slag in Arabic
خابث, خباث
slag in Thai
ขี้เชื่อม kêe chêuam, ขี้ตะกรัน kêe dtàgran
slag in Vietnamese
xỉ

Examples of slag in a sentence

  • ‘[…]He was a lovely man but, when I told him I wanted to continue swinging, he freaked out and called me a slag.’2008, Ashley Lister, Swingers - Female Confidential, page 31:
  • ‘[…]To the lady that came in to my coffee shop today and ripped on me and my fellow employees for being too slow: eat shit, you miserable slag!’2010, The Coast, Halifax, Canada:
  • Soph, yeah, you can't murk me / You're a slag, riddled with STDs2016 December 3, Millie B, “Soph Aspin Send”, performed by Millie B:
  • Can't believe it's been nearly 11 years since them slags smashed into the twin towers2012 September 13, Alexis Petridis, quoting Danny Dyer (tweet), “Danny Dyer: why them 9/11 slags are freaking his nut”, in The Guardian:

All 28 example sentences with slag

Synonyms of slag

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of slag

Forms of slag

Noun
pluralslags
Verb
third-person singular presentslags
present participleslagging
past participleslagged
pastslagged

Plural of slag: slags

Origin of slag

Borrowed from Middle Low German slagge, slaggen (“slag, dross”), from Old Saxon *slaggo, from Proto-West Germanic *slaggō, from Proto-Germanic *slaggô, from Proto-Germanic *slagōną (“to strike”) + *-gô (diminutive suffix). Compare Middle Low German slāgen (“to strike”), since originally the splinters struck off from the metal by hammering, from *slagōn, from Proto-West Germanic *slagōn. Compare also Old Saxon slegi, from Proto-West Germanic *slagi. See also Dutch slak, German Schlacke, Swedish slagg; also compare English slay.

Words formed from slag

Phrases with slag

Words that rhyme with slag

39 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about slag

What does slag mean?
Slag means waste material from a mine.
What is slag in Hindi?
Slag in Hindi is स्लैग, स्लेग. See Slag meaning in Hindi.
How do you use slag in a sentence?
‘[…]He was a lovely man but, when I told him I wanted to continue swinging, he freaked out and called me a slag.’
What part of speech is slag?
Slag can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce slag?
Slag is pronounced /ˈslæɡ/ (UK).
What is the plural of slag?
The plural of slag is slags.

Words near slag in the dictionary

  1. Sladens
  2. slades
  3. Sladesbridge
  4. SLAF
  5. slaframine
  6. slag
  7. slag heap
  8. slag heaps
  9. slag off
  10. slag tag
  11. slag tags

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: slag (page history and authors); slag (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); slag (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); slag (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); slag (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); slag (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); slag (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); slag (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); slag (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); slag (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); slag (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); slag (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); slag (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-slag.ogg.

Cite this entry: “slag.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/slag. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.