slab
1 Americannoun
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a broad, flat, somewhat thick piece of stone, wood, or other solid material.
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a thick slice of anything.
a slab of bread.
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a semifinished piece of iron or steel so rolled that its breadth is at least twice its thickness.
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a rough outside piece cut from a log, as when sawing one into boards.
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Baseball Slang. rubber.
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Building Trades. a section of concrete pavement or a concrete floor placed directly on the ground or on a base of gravel.
verb (used with object)
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to make into a slab or slabs.
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to cover or lay with slabs.
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to cut the slabs or outside pieces from (a log).
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to put on in slabs; cover thickly.
adjective
noun
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a broad flat thick piece of wood, stone, or other material
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a thick slice of cake, etc
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any of the outside parts of a log that are sawn off while the log is being made into planks
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mountaineering a flat sheet of rock lying at an angle of between 30° and 60° from the horizontal
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a printer's ink table
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(modifier) made or constructed of coarse wooden planks
a slab hut
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informal an operating or mortuary table
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informal a package containing 24 cans of beer
verb
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to cut or make into a slab or slabs
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to cover or lay with slabs
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to saw slabs from (a log)
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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slabsimple
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slabssimple
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have slabbedperfect
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has slabbedperfect
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am slabbingprogressive
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are slabbingprogressive
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is slabbingprogressive
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have been slabbingperfect progressive
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has been slabbingperfect progressive
Past
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slabbedsimple
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had slabbedperfect
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was slabbingprogressive
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were slabbingprogressive
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had been slabbingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of slab1
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English noun slab(be), sclabbe; further origin unknown
Origin of slab2
First recorded in 1595–1605; apparently from Scandinavian; compare Swedish, Norwegian slabb “mire,” Danish slab “mud,” Icelandic slabba “to wade in mud”
Explanation
A slab is a great big thick piece of something. Your backyard patio, for example, might be made of a huge slab of concrete. A sidewalk is often composed of one cement slab after another — these are sometimes called paving slabs. You could refer to large pieces of stone or wood as slabs too. Even your lunch might be a slab, if it's a thick hunk of cheesy pizza or a huge slab of bread slathered with peanut butter. The origins of the word slab are unknown, though we do know it's been around since the thirteenth century.
Vocabulary lists containing slab
Words to Know Before You Defrost the Bird
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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
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A Single Shard
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In the classroom, trainees crowded around instructor Luo Duocheng as he demonstrated slicing a slab of beef, marinating it, and skewering the meat to form identical kebabs.
From Barron's • Jul. 2, 2026
A rescuer puts his ear to a hole they've just managed to drill through a concrete slab.
From BBC • Jun. 30, 2026
An eye-witness account of a wild-yet-delightful military tradition: Every summer since the mid-1900s, Naval Academy students have climbed a grease-covered 21-foot slab of granite.
From Slate • Jun. 24, 2026
A 20-foot slab of sidewalk is pitched sharply, as if designed by trip-and-fall lawsuit lawyers.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 13, 2026
I placed one on my rock slab and used the grinding stone to hit it.
From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo
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.
