slain
- past participle of slay.
slay
- to kill by violence.
- to destroy; extinguish.
- sley.
- Slang.
- to impress strongly; overwhelm, especially by humor: Your jokes slay me.
- to make a strong impression with: She really slayed her performance last night.
- Obsolete. to strike.
- to kill or murder.
- Slang. to strongly impress or overwhelm someone: His whole album slays.
- sley.
Origin of slay
Synonyms
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comsley
or slay, sleigh
- the reed of a loom.
- the warp count in woven fabrics.
- British. the lay of a loom.
- to draw (warp ends) through the heddle eyes of the harness or through the dents of the reed in accordance with a given plan for weaving a fabric.
Origin of sley
Related Words
deadExamples from the Web for slain
Contemporary Examples
Newspapers around Europe have also done so in solidarity with the slain.
On Monday, de Blasio called for a temporary halt to protests until after the funerals of the two slain officers.
The woman and her husband and teenage daughter were all slain.
The same spiritual sense prompted the bishop to seek justice for the slain activists.
The actual field, where Richard was unhorsed and slain in a medieval marsh, is more than a mile away to the southwest.
Historical Examples
One had already been slain by a bolt, so that there were but four upon their feet.
The White CompanyArthur Conan Doyle
The castle is taken and on fire, the seneschal is slain, and there is nought left for us.
The White CompanyArthur Conan Doyle
The Mantineans suffered severely in their retreat, but of the Argives only a few were slain.
Stories from ThucydidesH. L. Havell
His numbers were very inferior, and almost the whole were slain.
Cameos from English History, from Rollo to Edward IICharlotte Mary Yonge
Both Ned and his sister understand that their father was slain in battle, about this time.
Ned MyersJames Fenimore Cooper
slain
- the past participle of slay
slay
- archaic, or literary to kill, esp violently
- slang to impress (someone) sexually
- obsolete to strike
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for slain
adj.
early 13c., from Old English (ge)slegen, past participle of slean (see slay (v.)). The noun meaning "those who have been slain" is attested from mid-14c.
slay
v.
Old English slean "to smite, strike, beat," also "to kill with a weapon, slaughter" (class VI strong verb; past tense sloh, slog, past participle slagen), from Proto-Germanic *slahan, from root *slog- "to hit" (cf. Old Norse and Old Frisian sla, Danish slaa, Middle Dutch slaen, Dutch slaan, Old High German slahan, German schlagen, Gothic slahan "to strike"). The Germanic words are from PIE root *slak- "to strike" (cf. Middle Irish past participle slactha "struck," slacc "sword").
Modern German cognate schlagen maintains the original sense of "to strike." Meaning "overwhelm with delight" (mid-14c.) preserves one of the wide range of meanings the word once had, including, in Old English, "stamp (coins); forge (weapons); throw, cast; pitch (a tent), to sting (of a snake); to dash, rush, come quickly; play (the harp); gain by conquest."
slay
n.
"instrument on a weaver's loom to beat up the weft," Old English slæ, slea, slahae, from root meaning "strike" (see slay (v.)), so called from "striking" the web together. Hence the surname Slaymaker "maker of slays."