slather

/ˈslæðə(ɹ)/

slather verb: to spread something thickly on something else; to coat well.

Verb

slather (third-person singular simple present slathers, present participle slathering, simple past and past participle slathered)

(transitive) To spread something thickly on something else; to coat well.
- I slathered jam on my toast.
Synonyms:

smother
(often, transitive) To apply generously upon.
- I slathered my toast with jam.
(transitive) To squander.
(transitive) To rain.
- ... rain had fallen all night and it was slathering down in sheets now. That didn't add to my good humor none.1918, The Green Book Magazine, page 949
- ... rain still slathered down out of the rubbery black sky. "Why is the sarge always pickin' on us?" asked Ortwingle sorrowfully as the water drenched down the collar of his raincoat. "I figger maybe we are dependable," Smoot[…]1941, Esquire

Noun

slather (plural slathers)

(transitive) A thick sauce or spread that is to be slathered (spread thickly) onto food.
(transitive) Drool (especially if abundant).
- [The river] Ván in SnE I 21 is mentioned as coming from the slather of the bound Fenris Wolf.1983, Edda: A Collection of Essays (Robert James Glendinning), page 177
(plural-normally, transitive) A generous or abundant quantity.
- Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand. We spent consider'ble money getting 'em reset, and then a swordfish got into the pound and tore the nets all to...1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
- In her eyes the manse people were quite fabulously rich, and no doubt those girls had slathers of shoes and stockings.1919, Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter 24, in Rainbow Valley

Examples of slather in a sentence

Alongside we have charred wild greens slathered with Cretan clarified staka butter.
The toasted bun can be slathered in butter or filled with cheese to create a cheesymite toastie.
In Philadelphia, tomato pie is a springy, square flatbread slathered with tomato sauce and comparable to the Sicilian sfincione.

All 21 example sentences with slather

Synonyms of slather

smother

Forms of slather

Verb
third-person singular present	slathers
present participle	slathering
past participle	slathered
past	slathered
Noun
plural	slathers

Past tense of slather: slathered

Origin of slather

Unknown; attested from early 19th century, in the sense "to slip, slide". For the sense "to rain", compare East Frisian sladdern and northern German schladdern ("to rain noisily").

Words formed from slather

Words that rhyme with slather

Questions about slather

What does slather mean?: Slather means to spread something thickly on something else; to coat well.
What part of speech is slather?: Slather can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce slather?: Slather is pronounced /ˈslæðə(ɹ)/.
What is the past tense of slather?: The past tense of slather is slathered.

Words near slather in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: slather (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-slather.wav.

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