slate

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A fine-grained metamorphic rock that splits into thin, smooth-surfaced layers.
2. n. A piece of this rock cut for use as roofing or surfacing material or as a writing surface.
3. n. A writing tablet made of a similar material.
4. n. A record of past performance or activity: start over with a clean slate.
5. n. A list of the candidates of a political party running for various offices.
6. n. A dark or bluish gray to dark bluish or dark purplish gray.
7. adj. Made of a fine-grained metamorphic rock: a slate roof.
8. adj. Of the color slate.
9. v. To cover (a roof, for example) with slate.
10. v. To put on a list of candidates.
11. v. To schedule or designate: Our professor has slated the art history lecture for Thursday afternoon; was slated to direct the studio's next film.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To bait; set a dog loose at.
2. To haul over the coals; take to task harshly or rudely; berate; abuse; scold; hold up to ridicule; criticize severely: as, the work was slated in the reviews.
3. n. A thin, flat stone or piece of stone; a thin plate or flake. See slat, 1.
4. n. Especially A piece or plate of the stone hence called slate. (See def. 3.) Specifically— A plate of slate used for covering in or roofing buildings; a tile of slate.
5. n. A rock the most striking characteristic of which is its fissile structure, or capability of being easily split or cleft into thin plates of nearly uniform thickness and smooth surfaces. The rocks in which a flssile structure is particularly well developed are almost exclusively the argillaceous, and those which have been more or less metamorphosed, and this flssility appears to be the result of the rearrangement of the particles of the rock into new combinations flattened into thin scales which lie in a direction at right angles to the direction in which the rock was pressed at the time the metamorphism was taking place. The bestknown variety of slate is the common roofing-slate, which is compact, homogeneous, and fissile enough to be used for covering roofs, or for manufacture into tables, chimney-pieces, writing-slates, etc. The valuable varieties of roofing-slate come almost exclusively from the older metamorphic rocks.
6. n. A preliminary list of candidates prepared by party managers for acceptance by a nominating caucus or convention: so called as being written down, as it were on a slate, and altered or erased like a school-boy's writing.
7. n. (which see, under chalk).
8. Of the color of slate; slate-colored; of a dark, slightly bluish-gray color of medium luminosity.
9. To cover with slate or plates of stone: as, to slate a roof.
10. To enter as on a slate; suggest or propose as a candidate by entering the name on the slate or ticket: as, A. B. is already slated for the mayoralty. See I., 4.
11. In tanning, to cleanse from hairs, etc., with a slater. See slater, 3.

Wiktionary

1. n. uncountable A fine-grained homogeneous sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash which has been metamorphosed so that it cleaves easily into thin layers.
2. n. uncountable The bluish-grey colour of most slate.
3. n. countable A sheet of slate for writing on with chalk.
4. n. countable A tile made of slate.
5. n. countable A record of money owed.
6. n. countable A list of affiliated candidates for an election.
7. adj. Having the bluish-grey/gray colour/color of slate.
8. v. To cover with slate.
9. v. chiefly UK To criticise harshly.
10. v. To schedule.
11. v. To destine or strongly expect.
12. v. To punish severely.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Min.) An argillaceous rock which readily splits into thin plates; argillite; argillaceous schist.
2. n. Any rock or stone having a slaty structure.
3. n. A prepared piece of such stone.
4. n. A thin, flat piece, for roofing or covering houses, etc.
5. n. A tablet for writing upon.
6. n. An artificial material, resembling slate, and used for the above purposes.
7. n. obsolete A thin plate of any material; a flake.
8. n. (Politics), Cant, U.S. A list of candidates, prepared for nomination or for election; a list of candidates, or a programme of action, devised beforehand.
9. v. To cover with slate, or with a substance resembling slate
10. v. Polit. Cant To register (as on a slate and subject to revision), for an appointment.
11. v. Prov. Eng. & Scot. To set a dog upon; to bait; to slat. See 2d slat, 3.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. cover with slate
2. n. thin layers of rock used for roofing
3. n. (formerly) a writing tablet made of slate
4. v. designate or schedule
5. n. a fine-grained metamorphic rock that can be split into thin layers
6. v. enter on a list or slate for an election
7. n. a list of candidates nominated by a political party to run for election to public offices