Word.ws English Dictionary

slash

UK/slaʃ/US/slæʃ/

slash noun: a swift, broad cutting stroke, especially one made with an edged weapon or whip. Also the alternative form of slatch.

slash: a swift, broad cutting stroke, especially one made with an edged weapon or whip
Image: Nanoworld, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

slash (plural slashes)

  1. A swift, broad cutting stroke, especially one made with an edged weapon or whip.
    • A slash of his blade just missed my ear.
  2. A wide striking motion made with an implement such as a cricket bat, hockey stick, or lacrosse stick.
    • He took a wild slash at the ball but the captain saved the team's skin by hacking it clear and setting up the team for a strike on the goal.
  3. (figuratively) A sharp reduction in resources allotted.
    • After the war ended, the army saw a 50% slash in their operating budget.
  4. A deep cut or laceration, as made by an edged weapon or whip.
    • He was bleeding from a slash across his cheek.
    Synonyms:
    gash
  5. A deep taper-pointed incision in a plant.
  6. A slit in an outer garment, usually exposing a lining or inner garment of a contrasting color or design.
  7. (Canada, US) A clearing in a forest, particularly one made by logging, fire, or other violent action.
    • We passed over the shoulder of a ridge and around the edge of a fire slash, and then we had the mountain fairly before us.1895, Henry Van Dyke, Little Rivers: A Book of Essays in Profitable Idleness
  8. The slash mark: the punctuation mark ⟨/⟩.
    • Initial inquiries among professional typists uncover names like slant, slant line, slash, and slash mark. Examination of typing instruction manuals discloses additional names such as diagonal and diagonal mark, and other sources provide the designation oblique.1965, Dmitri A. Borgmann, Language on Vacation, page 240
  9. (often, proscribed) Any similar typographical mark, such as the backslash ⟨\⟩.
  10. (broadly, idiomatic) The conjunctions and or also (during a conversation).
  11. (slang, vulgar) The vulva.
    Synonyms:
    cunt
  12. (Canada, US) The loose woody debris remaining from a slash; the trimmings left while preparing felled trees for removal.
    • Slash generated during logging may constitute a fire hazard.
  13. (obsolete) A wet or swampy place overgrown with bushes
  14. (slang) Slash fiction; fan fiction focused on homoerotic pairing of fictional characters.
    • Comments merely allow readers to proclaim themselves mortally offended by the content of a story, despite having been warned in large block letters of INCEST or SLASH (any kind of sex between two men or two women: the term originated with the Kirk/Spock pairing – it described the literal slash...2013, Katherine Arcement, “Diary”, in London Review of Books, volume 35, number 5

Verb (1)

slash (third-person singular simple present slashes, present participle slashing, simple past and past participle slashed)

  1. To cut with a swift broad stroke of an edged weapon.
    • They slashed at him with their swords, but only managed to nick one of his fingers.
    • She hacked and slashed her way across the jungle.
  2. To produce a similar wound with a savage strike of a whip.
  3. To strike swiftly and laterally with a hockey stick, usually across another player's arms or legs.
  4. (figuratively) To reduce sharply.
    • All prices slashed!
    • Competition forced them to slash prices.
  5. To create slashes in a garment.
  6. (figuratively) To criticize cuttingly.
  7. To strike violently and randomly, particularly
  8. To swing wildly at the ball.
  9. To move quickly and violently.
  10. To crack a whip with a slashing motion.
  11. (Canada, US) To clear land, (particularly forestry) with violent action such as logging or brushfires or (agriculture, uncommon) through grazing.
    • The province's traditional slash-and-burn agriculture was only sustainable with a much smaller population.
  12. (intransitive, slang) To write slash fiction.
    • Having read slash for other fandoms (mainly X-Files and Sentinel), I can say the whole gay issue gets dealt with more often in that slash than it does in Trek slash. That's not to say that all the slashers who slash in a "modern-era" show deal with AIDS, homophobia and other gay issues, but some of...1997 December 17, ASCEM, quoting Ruth Gifford, “Re: An Interesting Question, re Slash vs. Gay Fiction”, in alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated (Usenet)

Adverb

slash (not comparable)

  1. Used to note the sound or action of a slash.

Conjunction

slash

  1. (Canada, US) Used to connect two or more identities in a list.
    • Saul Hudson is a famous musician/songwriter.
    • What this, the Slashie, means is that you consider me the best actor slash model and not the other way around.2001, Drake Sather, Ben Stiller, John Hamburg, Zoolander, spoken by Fabio Lanzoni
  2. (Canada, US) Used to list alternatives.
    • Alternatives can be marked by the slash/stroke/solidus punctuation mark, a tall, right-slanting oblique line.
      Read: Alternatives can be marked by the slash-slash-stroke-slash-solidus punctuation mark, a tall, right-slanting oblique line.
    Synonyms:
    or, and, and/or

Noun (2)

slash (plural slashes)

  1. (obsolete, rare) A drink of something; a draft.
  2. (UK, slang, vulgar) A piss: an act of urination.
    • Where's the gents? I need to take a slash.
  3. (UK, rare, slang, vulgar) Piss; urine.
    • That bus shelter smells of slash.

Verb (2)

slash (third-person singular simple present slashes, present participle slashing, simple past and past participle slashed)

  1. (UK, intransitive, slang) To piss, to urinate.
    • If you can slash in my bed (I thought) don't tell me you can't suck my cock.1973, Martin Amis, The Rachel Papers,, page 189

Noun (3)

slash (plural slashes)

  1. (Northern-US, Southern US) A swampy area; a swamp.
    • On the North side of one of ye Windings of a great Slash or Swamp called ye Roundabout.1687, Colonial Virginia Patents 7, page 590, quoted in 1940, George Davis McJimsey, Topographic Terms in Virginia, page 120
    • three acres one Rood and Six pole of Land … Extending Northward along the Ditch thirty six poles and two fifths of a pole to a slash called Pitch and Tar Slash or Swamp[,] then along that Slash till it come to the Main Cart road westward …1694, Edmond Andros, Isabella Mackland, colonial Virginia record (granting land to Robert Beverly), quoted in 1988, Beverley Fleet, Virginia Colonial Abstracts, page 318
  2. (Northern-US, Southern US, uncommon) A slash pine, which grows in such (swampy) areas.
    • […] second growth long-leaf yellow slash. And also we have a short-leaf pine.1932, Mr. Yon, statement regarding a waterway from Choctawhatchee Bay to West Bay, Florida, printed in the Hearings of the United States House Committee on Rivers and Harbors (1932), page 8
    • Slash pine (Pinus caribaea Morelet) / Slash pine is also known as yellow slash, swamp pine, hill slash, and Cuban pine.][1935, Miscellaneous Publication, issue 209, page 15
  3. (Scotland) A large quantity of watery food such as broth.

Verb (3)

slash (third-person singular simple present slashes, present participle slashing, simple past and past participle slashed)

  1. (Scotland, intransitive) To work in wet conditions.

Also used as

slash is also the alternative form of slatch.

slash meaning in Punjabi, Nepali, Arabic and Thai

slash in Punjabi

ਸਲੈਸ਼, ਸਲੈਸ਼ ਕਰੋ

slash in Nepali

स्ल्यास, स्ल्याश गर्नुहोस्, स्ल्याश

slash in Arabic

typography: / symbol
خَطّ مَائِل ḵaṭṭ māʔil

slash in Thai

typography: / symbol
ทับ táp
swift cut with a blade
ฟัน fan, ตัด dtàt, เฉือน chʉ̌ʉan
More languagesFewer languages
slash in Vietnamese
dấu gạch chéo, dấu xuyệt chéo, dấu xẹt chéo

Examples of slash in a sentence

  • Profits are only up right now because they slashed overhead, but employee morale and product quality have collapsed too.
  • Trump promised to slash prescription drug prices — and he has delivered.2026 August 17, The White House, archived from the original on 18 Aug 2026:
  • Having read slash for other fandoms (mainly X-Files and Sentinel), I can say the whole gay issue gets dealt with more often in that slash than it does in Trek slash.1997 December 17, ASCEM, quoting Ruth Gifford, “Re: An Interesting Question, re Slash vs. Gay Fiction”, in...
  • “Maybe the problem is that you’re a romantic,” says my former lover-slash-friend-slash-male-sensitivity-reader.2025 July 21, Jean Garnett, “The Trouble With Wanting Men”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 21 Jul 2025:
  • Adjoins Goldman's land, the line of Robins by and old Indian path in a slash, the land of Majr Robert Beverley, deceased.1694 October 26, colonial Virginia record (regarding Capt. Richard Halle of the County of Essex)m quoted in 1988, Beverley Fleet, Virginia...

All 40 example sentences with slash

Synonyms of slash

23 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of slash

Forms of slash

Noun
pluralslashes
Verb
third-person singular presentslashes
present participleslashing
past participleslashed
pastslashed

Past tense of slash: slashed

Plural of slash: slashes

Origin of slash

Late Middle English, originally a verb of uncertain etymology. Perhaps of imitative origin, or possibly from Old French esclachier (“to break in pieces”), a variant of esclater, which is likely a Germanic borrowing, from Frankish *slaitan (“to slit, tear”). Used in the Wycliffe Bible as slascht (see 1 Kings 5:18) but otherwise unattested until 16th century. Conjunctive use from various applications of the punctuation mark ⟨/⟩. See also slash fiction.

Uncertain. Compare Scots slash (“large splash”), possibly from Old French esclache. Slang use for urination attested from the 1950s.

Uncertain. Compare British dialectal slashy (“wet and dirty, miry”) and Scots slash (“act of walking forcefully through water or mud”) and slatch (“wet and muddy place, mire”). Perhaps related to Swedish slask (“slush”). Compare also slash (“clearing in a forest”): in many cases it is difficult to tell whether that sense or this one is meant. (Also compare flash (“a marsh; a pool of water”).)

Words formed from slash

Phrases with slash

4 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with slash

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about slash

What does slash mean?
Slash means a swift, broad cutting stroke, especially one made with an edged weapon or whip.
What is slash in Punjabi?
Slash in Punjabi is ਸਲੈਸ਼, ਸਲੈਸ਼ ਕਰੋ. See Slash meaning in Punjabi.
How do you use slash in a sentence?
Profits are only up right now because they slashed overhead, but employee morale and product quality have collapsed too.
What part of speech is slash?
Slash can be a noun, a verb, an adverb or a conjunction.
How do you pronounce slash?
Slash is pronounced /slaʃ/ (UK).
What is the plural of slash?
The plural of slash is slashes.

Words near slash in the dictionary

  1. slart
  2. slarted
  3. slarting
  4. slarts
  5. SLAs
  6. slash
  7. slash and burn
  8. slash bunt
  9. slash bunts
  10. slash chord
  11. slash chords

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: slash (page history and authors); slash (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); slash (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-slash.ogg.

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