slash (slash)

[ staschen, cher, esclescher, esclischer, esclechier, dismember, sever, disunite: same as esclichier, esclicier, es clicer, > E. slice: see slice and slish, of which slash i is a doublet. The vowel a appears in the related word slate: see slate2. In defs. 4, 5 (where cf. the similar cut, n., 2) prob. confused with with l lash1.] I. trans. 1. To cut with long incisions; gash; slit; slice. They which will excell the rest in gallantry, and would see me to haue slaine and eaten the most enimies, slash and cut their flesh, and put therein a blacke powder, which neuer will bee done away. Purchas , Pilgrimage, p. 837. 2. To cut with a violent sweep; cut by striking ly; suddenly; all at once. [Colloq.] He took up a position opposite his fair entertainer, and with much gravity executed a solemn, but marvelously grotesque bow;. this done, he recovered body, and strode away again slap - dash . C. Reade, Art, p. 20. slap-dash (slap'dash), a . and n. [ slap - dash , adv .] I. a . Dashing; offhand; abrupt; free, carele , or happy-go-lucky; rash or random; impetuous: as, a slap - dash manner; slap - dash work; a slap - dash writer. [Colloq.] It was a slap - dash style, unceremonious, free and easy -an American style. Bulwer , My Novel, iii. 6. The slapdash judgments upon artists in others [letters] are very characteristic [of Landor]. Lowell, The Century, XXXV. 515. an ax. Then both drew their swords, and so cut 'em and slasht 'em That five of them did fall. Robin Hood's Birth (Child's Ballads, V. 350). Greene, Alphonsus (Works, ed. Dyce, II. 23). 3. To ornament, as a garment, by cutting slits in the cloth, and arranging lining of brilliant colors to be seen underneath. But presently slash off his traiterous head. One Man wears his Doublet slash'd , another lac'd, another plain. Selden, Table-Talk, p. 102. Costly his garb - his Flemish ruff Fell o'er his doublet, shaped of buff, With satin slash'd and lined. 4. To lash. [Rare.] Scott , L. of L. M., v. 16. Daniel, a sprightly swain that used to slash The vigorous steeds that drew his lord's calash. II. n. 1. A composition of lime and coarse sand, mixed to a liquid consistency and applied to exterior walls as a preservative; rough-cast- ing; harling. [Prov. Eng.]-2. The outside 5. To crack or snap, as a whip. plaster filling of a half-timbered house, be- tween the beams. The wood is painted of the darkest po ible red, and the gray slap - dash is filled with red granite pebbles. The Century, XXXII. 423. W. King. She slashed a whip she had in her hand; the cracks thereof were loud and dreadful. Dr. H. More, Mystery of Godline (1660), p. 220. [( Latham .) II. in trans. 1. To strike violently and at ran The sunset rays thy valley fill, Poured slantwise down the long defile. Whittier, The Merrimack. slap1 (slap), v. t.; pret. and pp. slapped, ppr. slapping. [ G. schlappen ), slap; prob. akin to slam1 and perhaps ult. to slay1.] 1. To strike with the open hand or with something flat: as, to slap one on the back; to slap a child on the hand. sidered action or work. [Colloq.] As a specimen of newspaper slapdash we may point to the description of General Ignatieff as "the Ru ian Mr. Gladstone." Athenæum , No. 3197, p. 146. 41. Violent abuse. with sharp blows. you such an English courant of slap - dash presently that shan't out of your ears this twelvemonth. The Sybarite slashed through the waves like a knife through cream-cheese. Hannay, Singleton Fontenoy. slash