a person trained in laying roof slates
dialect a woodlouse See also sea slater
First recorded in 1375–1425, slater is from the late Middle English word sclater. See slate 1, -er 1
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Louise recounts a slater called John McWilliam, who fled to Stranraer after being accused of witchcraft for a second time, before going on trial in Edinburgh.
From BBC • Oct. 30, 2025
He promised an updated list, but more than six month slater, it has yet to appear.
From BBC • May 26, 2025
A slater had given it to him for fifteen francs.
From Bouvard and Pécuchet A Tragi-comic Novel of Bourgeois Life by Flaubert, Gustave
He has driven our Winter Rhapsody clean out of our noddle—and to-morrow we must be sending for the slater, the plumber, and the glazier.
From Recreations of Christopher North, Volume 2 by Wilson, John
I could have got work to-day if I had been a carpenter, or if I’d been a joiner, or a slater, or a bricklayer, or a plasterer, or a painter, or a hod-carrier.
From Dr. Sevier by Cable, George Washington
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
