Wiktionary

slab

See also: sláb

English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Middle English sclabbe, slabbe, of uncertain origin; possibly from *slap, related to dialectal slappel (“portion, piece”), along with slape (“slippery”), sleip (“smooth piece of timber”), borrowed through Old Norse sleipr from Proto-Germanic *slaipaz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)leyb-. See also Norwegian sleip (“slippery”) and Icelandic sleipur.

Noun

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slab (plural slabs)

  1. A large, flat piece of solid material; a solid object that is large and flat.
    • 1859, John Lang, Botany Bay, or, True Tales of Early Australia, page 155:
      There were no windows in the inn. They were not required, since the interstices between the slabs suffered the wind, the rain, and the light of day to penetrate simultaneously.
    • 1913 August, Jack London, chapter V, in John Barleycorn, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 45:
      Then there was the Mexican who sold big slabs of chewing taffy for five cents each. […] And many a day I made my entire lunch off of one of those slabs.
    • 1962, “Monster Mash”, Bobby "Boris" Pickett and Lenny Capizzi (lyrics), performed by Bobby (Boris) Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers:
      I was working in the lab late one night
      When my eyes beheld an eerie sight
      For my monster, from his slab, began to rise
      And suddenly, to my surprise
      He did the Mash
      He did the Monster Mash.
    • 2010, Ryan Humphreys, The Flirtations of Dan Harris, page 73:
      “The pier? You mean those few sodden logs tied together and that dingy slab of rough concrete.”
  2. A paving stone; a flagstone.
  3. (Australia) A carton containing 24 cans (chiefly of beer). [from 20th c.]
    • 2001, Les Carlyon, Gallipoli, page 8:
      The Australians murder a few slabs of beer and the New Zealanders murder a few vowels.
    • 2002, Alex Miller, Journey to the Stone Country, Allen & Unwin, published 2003, page 88:
      The older man bought a slab of Coca-Cola at the counter and carried it out ahead of the younger man.
    • 2008, Diem Vo, Family Life, Alice Pung (editor), page 156,
      However, unlike in Ramsay Street, there were never any cups of tea or bickies served. Instead, each family unit came armed with a slab of beer.
    • 2010, Holly Smith, Perth, Western Australia & the Outback, Hunter Publishing, unnumbered page:
      Common 375-ml cans are called tinnies, and can be bought in 24-can slabs for discounted prices.
    • 2009, Ross Fitzgerald, Trevor Jordan, Under the Influence: A History of Alcohol in Australia, published 2011, unnumbered page:
      One essential part of the strategy for selling regionally identified beers beyond their borders was the selling of slabs — a package of four six-packs of stubbies or cans — for discounted prices interstate.
  4. An outside piece taken from a log or timber when sawing it into boards, planks, etc.
  5. (nautical) The slack part of a sail.
  6. (US, slang) A large, luxury pre-1980 General Motors vehicle, particularly a Buick, Oldsmobile, or Cadillac.
    • 2021 March 23, Peter Holley, “They Just Moved Into an Austin Neighborhood. Now They Want to End One of Its Traditions.”, in Texas Monthly‎[1]:
      After a few loops around the park, some drivers—most of them Black and Latino men in their twenties and thirties driving customized lowriders, bright, candy-colored slabs, and jacked-up trucks with flashy chrome rims—packed into a nearby middle school parking lot.
  7. (surfing) A very large wave.
    • 2009, Bruce Boal, The Surfing Yearbook, SurfersVillage, page 31:
      After being towed into a massive slab, Dorian dropped down the face and caught a rail, putting him in a near-impossible situation.
    • 2011, Douglas Booth, Surfing: The Ultimate Guide, page 95:
      In August 2000 he successfully rode a slab of unfathomable power at Teahupo′o.
  8. (programming) The amount by which a cache can grow or shrink, used in memory allocation.
  9. (geology) Part of a tectonic plate that is being, or has been, subducted.
    • 2015, Dapeng Zhao, Multiscale Seismic Tomography, Springer, page 72:
      Being driven by the gravitational force, the subducting Pacific slab continues to sink down to the boundary between the upper and lower mantle […]
  10. (construction) A poured-concrete foundation for a building.
  11. (geometry) A region between two parallel lines in the Euclidean plane, or between two parallel planes in three-dimensional Euclidean space, or between two hyperplanes in higher dimensions.
  12. A flat, sealed plastic case that encloses a flat collector's item, such as a coin or a trading card.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Verb

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slab (third-person singular simple present slabs, present participle slabbing, simple past and past participle slabbed)

  1. (transitive) To make into a slab.
  2. (transitive, informal) To destroy (a structure) so completely as to leave only the foundation slab visible.
    Synonym: raze
    Multiple homes were slabbed by the monster tornado.

Etymology 2

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Compare Goidelic and Irish slaib (“mud, mire left on a river strand”), and English slop (“puddle”).

Noun

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slab (uncountable)

  1. (archaic) Mud, sludge.
Derived terms
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Adjective

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slab (comparative more slab, superlative most slab)

  1. (archaic) Thick; viscous.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “slab”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Etymology 3

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Acronym of Slow, Loud And Bangin'. This term been popularized through the southern rap genre of hip-hop, most notably by rappers such as Paul Wall, Chamillionaire, Lil' Keke, and others.

Noun

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slab (plural slabs)

  1. (Southern US, slang) A car that has been modified with equipment such as loudspeakers, lights, special paint, hydraulics, and other accessories.

Etymology 4

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Noun

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slab (plural slabs)

  1. (British dialect, obsolete) A bird, the wryneck.

Etymology 5

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From syllable.

Noun

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slab (plural slabs)

  1. (computing) A sequence of 12 adjacent bits, serving as a byte in some computers.

References

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Anagrams

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Aromanian

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From a Slavic language, ultimately from Proto-Slavic *slàbъ. Compare Romanian slab, Bulgarian and Macedonian слаб (slab), Serbo-Croatian slȁb.

Adjective

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slab m (feminine slabã, masculine plural slaghi, feminine plural slabi or slabe)

  1. weak
  2. lean, thin, skinny
  3. bad, wicked, evil

Synonyms

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Antonyms

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Derived terms

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Noun

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slab m

  1. evil

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Dutch

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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slab f (plural slabben, diminutive slabbetje n)

  1. (also very common in the diminutive) bib

Italian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English slab.

Noun

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slab m (invariable)

  1. slab (of metal to be worked)
    Synonym: bramma

Romanian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Old Church Slavonic слабъ (slabŭ), from Proto-Slavic *slàbъ. Compare Aromanian slab, Bulgarian and Macedonian слаб (slab), Serbo-Croatian slȁb.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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slab m or n (feminine singular slabă, masculine plural slabi, feminine and neuter plural slabe)

  1. weak
    Antonym: puternic
  2. thin, skinny
    Antonym: gras

Declension

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singular plural
masculine neuter feminine masculine neuter feminine
nominative-
accusative 		indefinite slab slabă slabi slabe
definite slabul slaba slabii slabele
genitive-
dative 		indefinite slab slabe slabi slabe
definite slabului slabei slabilor slabelor
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See also

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Serbo-Croatian

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Etymology

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Inherited from Proto-Slavic *slàbъ, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)leh₂b- (“to be weak, limp, languid”).

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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slȁb (Cyrillic spelling сла̏б, definite slȁbī, comparative slabiji)

  1. weak

Declension

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positive indefinite forms
singular masculine feminine neuter
nominative slab slaba slabo
genitive slaba slabe slaba
dative slabu slaboj slabu
accusative inanimate
animate 		slab
slaba 		slabu slabo
vocative slab slaba slabo
locative slabu slaboj slabu
instrumental slabim slabom slabim
plural masculine feminine neuter
nominative slabi slabe slaba
genitive slabih slabih slabih
dative slabim(a) slabim(a) slabim(a)
accusative slabe slabe slaba
vocative slabi slabe slaba
locative slabim(a) slabim(a) slabim(a)
instrumental slabim(a) slabim(a) slabim(a)
positive definite forms
singular masculine feminine neuter
nominative slabi slaba slabo
genitive slabog(a) slabe slabog(a)
dative slabom(u/e) slaboj slabom(u/e)
accusative inanimate
animate 		slabi
slabog(a) 		slabu slabo
vocative slabi slaba slabo
locative slabom(e/u) slaboj slabom(e/u)
instrumental slabim slabom slabim
plural masculine feminine neuter
nominative slabi slabe slaba
genitive slabih slabih slabih
dative slabim(a) slabim(a) slabim(a)
accusative slabe slabe slaba
vocative slabi slabe slaba
locative slabim(a) slabim(a) slabim(a)
instrumental slabim(a) slabim(a) slabim(a)
comparative forms
singular masculine feminine neuter
nominative slabiji slabija slabije
genitive slabijeg(a) slabije slabijeg(a)
dative slabijem(u) slabijoj slabijem(u)
accusative inanimate
animate 		slabiji
slabijeg(a) 		slabiju slabije
vocative slabiji slabija slabije
locative slabijem(u) slabijoj slabijem(u)
instrumental slabijim slabijom slabijim
plural masculine feminine neuter
nominative slabiji slabije slabija
genitive slabijih slabijih slabijih
dative slabijim(a) slabijim(a) slabijim(a)
accusative slabije slabije slabija
vocative slabiji slabije slabija
locative slabijim(a) slabijim(a) slabijim(a)
instrumental slabijim(a) slabijim(a) slabijim(a)
superlative forms
singular masculine feminine neuter
nominative najslabiji najslabija najslabije
genitive najslabijeg(a) najslabije najslabijeg(a)
dative najslabijem(u) najslabijoj najslabijem(u)
accusative inanimate
animate 		najslabiji
najslabijeg(a) 		najslabiju najslabije
vocative najslabiji najslabija najslabije
locative najslabijem(u) najslabijoj najslabijem(u)
instrumental najslabijim najslabijom najslabijim
plural masculine feminine neuter
nominative najslabiji najslabije najslabija
genitive najslabijih najslabijih najslabijih
dative najslabijim(a) najslabijim(a) najslabijim(a)
accusative najslabije najslabije najslabija
vocative najslabiji najslabije najslabija
locative najslabijim(a) najslabijim(a) najslabijim(a)
instrumental najslabijim(a) najslabijim(a) najslabijim(a)

Slovene

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Etymology

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From Proto-Slavic *slàbъ.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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slȁb (comparative slȃbši, superlative nȁjslȃbši)

  1. bad (not good)
  2. weak

Inflection

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 The diacritics used in this section of the entry are non-tonal. If you are a native tonal speaker, please help by adding the tonal marks.
Hard
masculine feminine neuter
nom. sing. slàb slába slábo
singular
masculine feminine neuter
nominative slàb ind
slábi def 		slába slábo
genitive slábega slábe slábega
dative slábemu slábi slábemu
accusative nominativeinan or
genitiveanim 		slábo slábo
locative slábem slábi slábem
instrumental slábim slábo slábim
dual
masculine feminine neuter
nominative slába slábi slábi
genitive slábih slábih slábih
dative slábima slábima slábima
accusative slába slábi slábi
locative slábih slábih slábih
instrumental slábima slábima slábima
plural
masculine feminine neuter
nominative slábi slábe slába
genitive slábih slábih slábih
dative slábim slábim slábim
accusative slábe slábe slába
locative slábih slábih slábih
instrumental slábimi slábimi slábimi

This adjective needs an inflection-table template.

Derived terms

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Further reading

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  • “slab”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU, portal Fran
  • “slab”, in Termania, Amebis
  • See also the general references
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Idea 2
idea 2
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