slice
/slaɪs/ noun, verb, adjective, proper noun
- noun That which is thin and broad.
- noun A thin, broad piece cut off. “a slice of bacon; a slice of cheese; a slice of bread”
- noun (colloquial) An amount of anything.
- noun A piece of pizza, shaped like a sector of a circle.
- noun (UK) A snack consisting of pastry with savoury filling. “I bought a ham and cheese slice at the service station.”
- noun A broad, thin piece of plaster.
- noun A knife with a thin, broad blade for taking up or serving fish; also, a spatula for spreading anything, as paint or ink.
- noun A salver, platter, or tray.
- verb (transitive) To cut into slices. “Slice the cheese thinly.”
- verb (transitive) To cut with an edge using a drawing motion. “The knife left sliced his arm.”
- verb (transitive) To clear (e.g. a fire, or the grate bars of a furnace) by means of a slice bar.
- verb (transitive, badminton) To hit the shuttlecock with the racket at an angle, causing it to move sideways and downwards.
- verb (transitive, golf) To hit a shot that slices (travels from left to right for a right-handed player).
- verb (transitive, rowing) To angle the blade so that it goes too deeply into the water when starting to take a stroke.
- verb (transitive, soccer) To kick the ball so that it goes in an unintended direction, at too great an angle or too high.
- verb (transitive, tennis) To hit the ball with a stroke that causes a spin, resulting in the ball swerving or staying low after a bounce.
- adjective (mathematics) Having the properties of a slice knot.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
cutting snippet bit chip chunk tranche clip crumb crumbling flake fleak fragment hunk lump mammock ort piece piecemeal portion scrap cut gash slash fade slicing slit slice up
Etymology
From Middle English sclise, sklise, from Old French esclice, esclis (“a piece split off”), deverbal of esclicer, esclicier (“to splinter, split up”), from Frankish *slitjan (“to split up”), from Proto-Germanic *slitjaną, from Proto-Germanic *slītaną (“to split, tear apart”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleyd- (“to rend, injure, crumble”). Akin to Old High German sliz, gisliz (“a tear, rip”), Old High German slīȥan (“to tear”), Old English slītan (“to split up”), modern French éclisse. More at slite, slit.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A thin, broad piece cut off; as, a slice of bacon; a slice of cheese; a slice of bread.
- noun That which is thin and broad, like a slice. Specifically: (a) A broad, thin piece of plaster.
- verb To cut into thin pieces, or to cut off a thin, broad piece from.
- verb To cut into parts; to divide.
Etymology [OE. slice, sclice, OF. esclice, from esclicier, esclichier, to break to pieces, of German origin; cf. OHG. slizan to split, slit, tear, G. schleissen to slit. See Slit, v. t.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “slice”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details