Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To move over a surface while maintaining smooth continuous contact.
  • intransitive verb To participate in a sport that involves such movement.
  • intransitive verb To lose a secure footing or positioning; slip.
  • intransitive verb To pass smoothly and quietly; glide.
  • intransitive verb Baseball To drop down from a running into a lying or diving position when approaching a base so as to avoid being tagged out.
  • intransitive verb To be ignored or not dealt with; drop.
  • intransitive verb To decrease.
  • intransitive verb To become less favorable or less desirable.
  • intransitive verb To cause to slide or slip.
  • intransitive verb To place covertly or deftly.
  • noun A sliding movement or action.
  • noun A smooth, usually inclined surface or track for sliding.
  • noun A playground apparatus for children to slide on, typically consisting of a smooth chute climbed onto by means of a ladder.
  • noun A part that operates by sliding, as the U-shaped section of tube on a trombone that is moved to change the pitch.
  • noun A period of decline or loss.
  • noun An image on a transparent base for projection on a screen.
  • noun A small glass plate for mounting specimens to be examined under a microscope.
  • noun A fall of a mass of rock, earth, or snow down a slope; an avalanche or landslide.
  • noun A backless shoe with an open toe.
  • noun A slight portamento used in violin playing, passing quickly from one note to another.
  • noun An ornamentation consisting of two grace notes approaching the main note.
  • noun A small metal or glass tube worn over a finger or held in the hand, used in playing bottleneck-style guitar.
  • noun The bottleneck style of guitar playing.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An inclined plane up which hay is drawn by horse-power on to a rick by means of a net and a cable running over the top of the rick. The net, when emptied, is drawn back by a horse with a long rope. This method is practised on very large ranches.
  • noun A smooth and easy passage.
  • noun Flow; even course; fluency.
  • noun In music:
  • noun A melodic embellishment or grace, consisting of an upward or a downward series of three or more tones, the last of which is the principal tone. It may be considered as an extension of an appoggiatura. Also sliding-relish.
  • noun Same as portamento.
  • noun The transition of one articulate sound into another; a glide: an occasional use.
  • noun A smooth surface, especially of ice, for sliding on.
  • noun An inclined plane for facilitating the descent of heavy bodies by the force of gravity; a shoot, as a timber-shoot, a shoot (mill or puss) in a mine, etc.
  • noun A land-slip; an avalanche.
  • noun In mining, a fissure or crack, either empty or filled with flucan, crossing the lode and throwing it slightly out of its position.
  • noun That part of an instrument or apparatus which slides or is slipped into or out of place.
  • noun A slip or inadvertence.
  • noun Some arrangement on which anything slides, as (in the plural) slides, a term used in some mines as the equivalent of cage-guides.
  • noun An object holding by friction upon a band, tag, cord, or the like, and serving to hold its parts or strands in place.
  • noun A slide-valve.
  • To move bodily along a surface without ceasing to touch it, the same points of the moving body remaining always in contact with that surface; move continuously along a surface without rolling: as, to slide down hill.
  • Specifically, to glide over the surface of snow or ice on the feet, or (in former use) on skates, or on a sled, toboggan, or the like.
  • To slip or pass smoothly; glide on ward.
  • To pass gradually from one state or condition to another.
  • In music, to pass or progress from tone to tone without perceptible step or skip—that is, by means of a portamento.
  • To go without thought or attention; pass unheeded or without attention or consideration; be unheeded or disregarded; take care of itself (or of themselves): used only with let: as, to let things slide.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English sliden, from Old English slīdan.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English sliden, from Old English slīdan ("to slide"), from Proto-Germanic *slīdanan (“to slide, glide”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleidh- (“to slip”). Cognate with Old High German slītan (German schlittern, "to slide"), Middle Low German slīden ("to slide"), Middle Dutch slīden (Dutch sledderen, "to slide").

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Examples

  • * A mountain "slide" is sometimes (as in the case of the famous slide at Alpnacht) a scientifically constructed incline paved with pine-trunks, down which the felled timber from the upper forests is shot into the valley without the labour and expense of transport.

    Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys 1873

  • When the title slide comes up, we are all expecting the T-man himself to come out and share some pointers about putting.

    Erica Boeke: World Premiere Video: Serena Fills in For Tiger 2009

  • In November, as I reviewed the PowerPoint slides before I presented, I remember going back to the title slide, and removing the references to my doctorates.

    Archive 2006-06-01 2006

  • In November, as I reviewed the PowerPoint slides before I presented, I remember going back to the title slide, and removing the references to my doctorates.

    Resident Alien 2006

  • Webb let the name slide by, figuring Stefan was her brother, therefore of no interest to him.

    Stands a Calder Man Janet Dailey 1983

  • Webb let the name slide by, figuring Stefan was her brother, therefore of no interest to him.

    Stands a Calder Man Janet Dailey 1983

  • : The You Tube header says "Procession to Cavalry" (sic), but the title slide spells Calvary correctly.

    Stand Firm Stand Firm 2010

  • : The You Tube header says "Procession to Cavalry" (sic), but the title slide spells Calvary correctly.

    Stand Firm Stand Firm 2010

  • : The You Tube header says "Procession to Cavalry" (sic), but the title slide spells Calvary correctly.

    Stand Firm Stand Firm 2010

  • There was a guy at NIST when I was there who would close his eyes during the title slide of any talk, and as far as anybody could tell, drop into a deep sleep -- faint snores, REM twitches, the whole nine yards.

    ScienceBlogs Channel : Life Science 2010

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