slur

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To pronounce indistinctly.
2. v. To talk about disparagingly or insultingly.
3. v. To pass over lightly or carelessly; treat without due consideration.
4. v. Music To glide over (a series of notes) smoothly without a break.
5. v. Music To mark with a slur.
6. v. Printing To blur or smear.
7. n. A disparaging remark; an aspersion.
8. n. A slurred utterance or sound.
9. n. Music A curved line connecting notes on a score to indicate that they are to be played or sung legato.
10. n. Music A passage played or sung in this manner.
11. n. Printing A smeared or blurred impression.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To smear; soil by smearing with something; sully; contaminate; pollute; tarnish: often with over.
2. To disparage by insinuation or innuendo; depreciate; calumniate; traduce; asperse; speak slightingly of.
3. To pass lightly (over or through); treat lightly or slightingly; make little of: commonly with over.
4. To cheat, originally by slipping or sliding a die in a particular way: an old gambling term; hence, to trick or cheat in general.
5. To do (anything) in a careless manner; render obscure or indistinct by running together, as words in speaking.
6. 6, In music, to sing (two or more tones) to a single syllable, or perform in a legato manner. See slur, n., 4.
7. In printing, to blur or double, as an impression from type; mackle.
8. To slide; be moved or dragged along in a shuffling, negligent way.
9. To practise cheating by slipping a die out of the box so as not to let it turn; hence, to cheat in any way.
10. In music, to apply a slur to two or more notes.
11. n. A mark or stain; a smear; hence, figuratively, a slight occasion of reproach.
12. n. A disparaging or slighting remark; an insinuation; an innuendo: as, he could never speak of him without a slur.
13. n. A trick; a cheat. See slur, intransitive verb, 2.
14. n. In vocal music, the combination of two or more tones of the music sung to a single syllable. The term originally signified simply a legato effect, and is still sometimes so used in connection with instrumental music.
15. n. In musical notation, a curved mark connecting two or more notes that are to be performed to a single syllable, or without break. A slur is distinguished from a tie in that it always connects notes on different degrees. It resembles the legato- and phrase-marks, but is properly confined to much fewer notes.
16. n. . A slide or glide.
17. n. In printing, a blurred or doubled impression caused by a shake or uneven motion in the sheet.
18. n. In a knitting-machine, mechanism which travels on a bar called the slur-bar, and depresses the jack-sinkers in succession, sinking a loop of thread between every pair of needles.
19. n. Mud; especially, thin, washy mud.

Wiktionary

1. n. An insult or slight.
2. n. music A set of notes that are played legato, without separate articulation.
3. n. music The symbol indicating a legato passage, written as an arc over the slurred notes (not to be confused with a tie).
4. n. obsolete A trick or deception.
5. n. In knitting machines, a device for depressing the sinkers successively by passing over them.
6. v. To insult or slight.
7. v. To run together; to articulate poorly.
8. v. music To play legato or without separate articulation.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To soil; to sully; to contaminate; to disgrace.
2. v. To disparage; to traduce.
3. v. To cover over; to disguise; to conceal; to pass over lightly or with little notice.
4. v. rare To cheat, as by sliding a die; to trick.
5. v. To pronounce indistinctly.
6. v. (Mus.) To sing or perform in a smooth, gliding style; to connect smoothly in performing, as several notes or tones.
7. v. (Print.) To blur or double, as an impression from type; to mackle.
8. n. A mark or stain; hence, a slight reproach or disgrace; a stigma; a reproachful intimation; an innuendo.
9. n. rare A trick played upon a person; an imposition.
10. n. (Mus.) A mark, thus [⌢ or ⌣], connecting notes that are to be sung to the same syllable, or made in one continued breath of a wind instrument, or with one stroke of a bow; a tie; a sign of legato.
11. n. In knitting machines, a contrivance for depressing the sinkers successively by passing over them.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. play smoothly or legato
2. n. a blemish made by dirt
3. v. become vague or indistinct
4. n. a disparaging remark
5. v. utter indistinctly
6. n. (music) a curved line spanning notes that are to be played legato
7. v. speak disparagingly of; e.g., make a racial slur