slags

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

   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

   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

   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

   Synonyms:

   hussy, skank, NB: All terms are usually pejorative unless stated otherwise., 304, alley cat, alleycat, amorette, amoret, amorosa, article

See all 14 meanings of slag