slash
1 Americanverb (used with object)
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slashes,
present (3rd person singular)
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slashed,
past participle, past
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slashing
present participle
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to cut with a violent sweeping stroke or by striking violently and at random, as with a knife or sword.
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to lash; whip.
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to cut, reduce, or alter.
The editors slashed the story to half its length.
- Synonyms:
- abbreviate, abridge
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to make slits in (a garment) to show an underlying fabric.
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to criticize, censure, or attack in a savage or cutting manner.
verb (used without object)
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slashes,
present (3rd person singular)
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slashed,
past participle, past
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slashing
present participle
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to lay about one with sharp, sweeping strokes; make one's way by cutting.
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to make a sweeping, cutting stroke.
noun
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a sweeping stroke, as with a knife, sword, or pen.
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a cut, wound, or mark made with such a stroke.
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a curtailment, reduction, or alteration.
a drastic slash of prices.
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a decorative slit in a garment showing an underlying fabric.
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a short oblique stroke (/) between two words indicating that whichever is appropriate may be chosen to complete the sense of the text in which they occur; a virgule.
you and/or your dependents.
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a dividing line, as in dates, fractions, a run-in passage of poetry to show verse division, etc.; a virgule.
She got 3/4 of the answers correct.
“Sweetest love, I do not go/For weariness of thee.” (John Donne)
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(in forest land)
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an open area strewn with debris of trees from felling or from wind or fire.
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the debris itself.
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Slang. slash fiction.
noun
verb
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to cut or lay about (a person or thing) with sharp sweeping strokes, as with a sword, knife, etc
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to lash with a whip
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to make large gashes in
to slash tyres
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to reduce (prices, etc) drastically
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to criticize harshly
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to slit (the outer fabric of a garment) so that the lining material is revealed
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to clear (scrub or undergrowth) by cutting
noun
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a sharp, sweeping stroke, as with a sword or whip
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a cut or rent made by such a stroke
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a decorative slit in a garment revealing the lining material
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littered wood chips and broken branches that remain after trees have been cut down
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an area so littered
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Also called: diagonal. forward slash. separatrix. shilling mark. solidus. stroke. virgule. a short oblique stroke used in text to separate items of information, such as days, months, and years in dates ( 18/7/80 ), alternative words ( and/or ), numerator from denominator in fractions ( 55/103 ), etc
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slang the act of urinating (esp in the phrase have a slash )
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a genre of erotic fiction written by women, to appeal to women
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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slashsimple
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slashessimple
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have slashedperfect
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has slashedperfect
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am slashingprogressive
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are slashingprogressive
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is slashingprogressive
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have been slashingperfect progressive
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has been slashingperfect progressive
Past
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slashedsimple
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had slashedperfect
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was slashingprogressive
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were slashingprogressive
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had been slashingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of slash1
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English slaschen, perhaps from Old French esclachier “to break”
Origin of slash2
An Americanism dating back to 1645–55; origin uncertain
Explanation
To quickly and violently cut something is to slash it. Sword fighters in a play might just clank their swords together, though they seem to slash each other. After the play is over, the snack stand might slash the price of popcorn. A vandal might slash the tires on people's cars, and a baker will sometimes slash the top of a loaf of bread. Both use a sharp knife, and make sweeping motions as they cut, but the similarities end there. Figuratively, slash can mean "reduce," so a sale at your grocery store might be announced with a sign reading "We slash prices!" This figurative meaning dates from the turn of the 20th century.
Vocabulary lists containing slash
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.
See Examples For:
At On Holding, there are no plans to slash price tags even after its weakest retail sales since going public in 2021 forced the company to soften its sales outlook.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026
The company is seeking to slash production capacities as it struggles with weak demand, and had already decided in 2024 to end vehicle production at the factory by 2027.
From Barron's ● Sep. 7, 2026
They had to slash ticket prices in the middle of the season.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2026
The supervisory board of German car giant Volkswagen has backed a plan to slash an additional 50,000 jobs.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 4, 2026
The circled image of a person standing between two train cars with a red slash running through the circle was equally clear.
From "Clayton Byrd Goes Underground" by Rita Williams-Garcia
That segment of the show largely stripped out the guitars to focus on clubby techno and nasty slashes of synth noise.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 12, 2026
DBS cuts its rating on the stock to hold from buy and slashes its target price to HK$19.50 from HK$27.00.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 30, 2026
Nomura downgrades its ratings on HD Hyundai Heavy Industries to reduce from neutral, and slashes target price by 33% to 350,000 won.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 20, 2026
AI slashes their coding costs while maintaining their revenue.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 19, 2026
But eventually I was going to have to translate the play into ordinary script, and then the gaps would be as ostentatious as the slashes in the clothing of those young dandies I'd seen.
From "The Shakespeare Stealer" by Gary L. Blackwood
PepsiCo this year slashed prices on snacks like Doritos, Tostitos and Cheetos by up to 15% after customers complained that they were too expensive.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 16, 2026
The following year, the government slashed ministers' salaries.
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026
State leaders noted that under the plan, Nevada’s annual allotment of 300,000 acre-feet could be slashed to as little as 86,500 acre-feet, which they said would be devastating for Las Vegas and surrounding cities.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026
Even so, the NSR could attract bulk liquid vessels carrying oil and liquefied natural gas, who could see their costs slashed by 45 to 50 percent in some cases, the study found.
From Barron's ● Aug. 22, 2026
I dodged and slashed and rolled, but I felt like I was fighting a hundred swordsmen.
From "The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan
A rising share of builders are slashing prices on newly built homes despite increasing construction costs, as buyers get spooked by high mortgage rates.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 16, 2026
"We are also directly supporting farmers and the fishing industry by slashing duty on the red diesel fuel they rely on to its lowest rate in over 20 years," they said.
From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026
The intergovernmental body has advised slashing the quantity of north-east Atlantic mackerel caught in 2026 by roughly 70% to allow the stock a chance to recover.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026
The plan envisages slashing the three states' collective water consumption by up to 3.7 billion cubic meters per year until 2036 -- the equivalent of 1.5 million Olympic-sized swimming pools.
From Barron's ● Aug. 24, 2026
They worked in teams, a man slashing the cane, a woman binding every twelve stalks into a bundle.
From "Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science" by Marc Aronson
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.
