Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The vitreous mass left as a residue by the smelting of metallic ore.
- n. See scoria.
- v. To change into or form slag.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The earthy matter separated, in a more or less completely fused and vitrified condition, during the reduction of a metal from its ore. Slags are the result of the combination with one another, and with the fluxes added, of the silicious and other mineral substances contained in the ore, and they vary greatly in character according to the nature of the ores and fluxes used. Blast-furnace slags are essentially silicates of lime and alumina, the alumina having usually been present in the ore, and the lime added (in the form of carbonate of lime) as a flux, or as a means of obtaining a slag sufficiently fluid to allow of the easy and complete separation from it of the reduced metal. The slag of iron-furnaces is frequently called
cinder . - n. The scoria of a volcano.
- To form a slag, or to cohere when heated so as to become a slag-like mass.
- n. A hollow or depression of land.
- n. In the puddling process for making wrought-iron, the slag which forms when, as a preliminary step not always taken, air is blown down upon the surface of a charge of melted cask iron in a specially constructed hearth. Silicon is the principal substance removed from the iron, and the slag consists mainly of ferrous silicate.
- In metal: To convert into slag: as, an excess of limestone used as a flux may to a greater or less extent slag the lining of a furnace.
- To cake together as the result of chemical action at a heat lower than that of fusion.
Wiktionary
- n. Waste material from a coal mine.
- n. Scum that forms on the surface of molten metal.
- n. Impurities formed and separated out when a metal is smelted from ore; vitrified cinders (Wikipedia).
- n. Hard aggregate remaining as a residue from blast furnaces, sometimes used as a surfacing material.
- n. Scoria associated with a volcano.
- n. UK, pejorative, dated A coward.
- n. UK, pejorative A contemptible person, a scumbag.
- n. UK, pejorative A prostitute.
- n. UK, Australia, New Zealand, slang, pejorative A woman (sometimes a man) who has loose morals relating to sex; a slut.
- v. transitive To produce slag.
- v. transitive, with "off" To talk badly about; to malign or denigrate (someone).
- v. intransitive, Australia, slang To spit.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The dross, or recrement, of a metal; also, vitrified cinders.
- n. The scoria of a volcano.
- n. (Metal.) A product of smelting, containing, mostly as silicates, the substances not sought to be produced as matte or metal, and having a lower specific gravity than the latter; -- called also, esp. in iron smelting,
cinder . The slag of iron blast furnaces is essentially silicate of calcium, magnesium, and aluminium; that of lead and copper smelting furnaces contains iron. - v. (Metal.) To form, or form into, a slag; to agglomerate when heated below the fusion point.
WordNet 3.0
- v. convert into slag
- n. the scum formed by oxidation at the surface of molten metals
Etymologies
- From Swedish slagg, or Middle Low German slacke, whence German Schlacke; originally, perhaps, the splinters struck off from the metal by hammering; compare slay. (Wiktionary)
- Low German slagge, from Middle Low German. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“If I call the queen a dirty parasite slag is that OK, it is just words.”
“As for the name, the first thing I think of is a bing, a mountain of slag from a coal mine.”
“They then thought that it was a piece of slag from a local foundry that had fallen out of a dump truck.”
“Iron slag is a waste product, but is used in steel sometimes.”
“To clarify: in English, slag is the mostly contaminated waste product of the iron- and steel-making process that would be inimical to agriculture.”
“Keep up the blog on February 13, 2008 at 8: 21 am | Reply deborah parr seriously someone got called a slag and was reported to the police?”
“The plant used to weld its steel auto frames in a way that produced lots of sparks, which, in turn, left lots of a waste-metal byproduct known as slag on the floor.”
“Deposits of raw materials by the rail yards formed mountain ranges of limestone, iron ore, and coal to go with the towering gray heaps of by-product called slag.”
“Steel production produces a by-product called slag, and the burning of coal produces a post-industrial waste known as fly ash.”
GREEN BUILDING 101: Materials & Resources, Part II | Inhabitat
“On the other hand, smithy and smelting debris are common on archaeological sites, especially slag, which is very well preserved because it is difficult to recycle and little altered by burial.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘slag’.
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Coal Mining Terms
Coal mining has engendered fascinating subcultures in industry, labor, music, folklore, environment and energy. It has a rich vocabulary as well, and I've encountered some gorgeous mining words. I...
firedamp, scrip, bituminous, anthracite, company store, blackdamp, brattice, bug dust, tipple, whitedamp, float dust, fly ash and 136 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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UK - slang
chin wag, arse about, bollock, starkers, sweet Fanny Adams, skive, shufti, codswallop, rhyming slang, bollocks, nookie, skew-whiff and 208 more...
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A Glossary of Filth
A compilation of those nitty-gritty yucky terms for substances and situations that we prefer not to encounter. Please folks, keep it clean; avoid the overly offensive ones.
"the terms...schmutz, smegma, muck, snarge, sewerage, mecomium, sewage, sebum, toe jam, pus, sludge, backwash and 130 more...
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IMCO - EU nomenclature
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
veal, valve, used, yak, wax, wan, teak, vat, vas, strip, use, strap and 4515 more...
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emordnilap
reviled, loot, no, ta, rat, part, pit, stop, spat, ten, mad, mart and 108 more...
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funny & derogatory
WARNING: VERY EXPLICIT. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
funny derogatory names, quotes, phrases.
( open list, randomness, ad hom, ad hominem )
also see:
buttfucking quitter, dirty sanchez, donkey punch, falcon punch, assbadger, unicorn turd, assclown, fudgenut, quackery, friggin homo, buttmuncher, jackwagon and 278 more... -
British English that's not in America...
British English that's not in American English
dummy, ta, answerphone, first fifteen soccer, first eleven cricket, shirty, fag, Black Monday, filter coffee, woolyback, motoring, loo and 20 more...
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Unwanted matter
gangue, dross, slag, scoria, refuse, trash, cinder, ashes, leavings, recrement, debris, waste and 37 more...
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Surprising four-letter words
I imagine most of these will be Anglo-Saxon, not likely to crop up in the average day's conversation, and thus excellent for Scrabble. ("most" is too common, likewise "will" and even "crop", in an...
blet, quim, clit, buff, sire, wiki, blog, loam, waft, heft, mare, lilt and 68 more...
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Serendipity's Words
defenestration, mercurial, syzygy, wicked, iniquitous, metastable, demimonde, entropic, ephemeral, irreligious, frisbee, manifold and 474 more...
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Twitter faves
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
niglets, aw, flakey, shiznit, thatch, sexy, bummers, hotty, eargasms, ratchetry, weird, fab and 457 more... -
erinnbatykefer's Words
ewer, lace, grenadine, wick, haruspex, augur, distal, proximal, supine, labyrinthine, rivers, monongahela and 176 more...
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maygra
apropos, advantageous, perception, discombobulated, adumbrate, apogee, perihelion, mortmain, solitudinous, mediastinus, asumbrative, traveler and 498 more...
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Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
bumwank, calamity, recalcitrant, gayenese, jeeze, nonsense, flabbergasted, juxtapose, procrastinating, ossanity, biffing, loser and 1972 more... -
Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
grabbable, retuiteando, leaving, fantastic, absolutely, kurwa, hella, ridic, underpass, hate, interlude, plush and 2369 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for slag.

johnmperry a loose woman Jul 23, 2008
john Yes. It's truly amazing that 72 percent of the time subjects can guess if a person is an oxidized metallic scum. Apr 10, 2008
chained_bear ...whether the person was the scum formed by oxidization at the surface of molten metals?
Dude. Apr 10, 2008
john "Other students were then asked to look at the photographed faces and say how easy they reckoned the pictured individual might be. In a staggering 72 per cent of cases, they correctly guessed whether the person in the portrait was or was not a slag."
The Register, Faces give away giveaways - psych profs' amazing claim, April 9, 2008 Apr 10, 2008