slash
1 Americanverb (used with object)
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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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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:
Musk left the Trump administration more than a year ago and his Doge project, which aimed to slash the size of the US federal government, has since been wound down.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
Ubisoft aims to slash its costs by at least 200 million euros in two years, on top of 300 million already targeted in recent years.
From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026
Leon County, which includes Tallahassee, has cast a closer eye on its coffers under a new measure to slash property taxes in the state.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026
Here’s one way to slash your cooling costs by $100 this summer.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 7, 2026
They leave the office grateful that Patel has agreed to slash her fee to $3,500 and require only $1,000 per person as a first installment.
From "Enrique's Journey" by Sonia Nazario
He slashes his 2026 and 2027 earnings projections by 22% and 28%, respectively.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026
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
AI slashes their coding costs while maintaining their revenue.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 19, 2026
AeroVironment slumps after the drone maker misses analysts’ forecasts for the third quarter and slashes guidance.
From Barron's ● Mar. 11, 2026
The kids applauded like onlookers at a fireworks display, violent slashes of color reflected in their masks.
From "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs
Pyziur also noted that oil prices have been suppressed in part because China slashed its own imports of oil.
From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2026
Take the agency’s recent eye-catching adjustment to U.S. beef-export sales, which were slashed by over 90% from an originally reported weekly figure for late June, citing a reporting error.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 18, 2026
After reaching an all-time high of 57.3% in 1830, the average tariff rate on all imports was slashed by 74% over the next 31 years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026
Supporters of current policy cite these provisions to argue that important child nutrition supports are being preserved and even made more flexible, complicating the narrative that children’s food assistance is uniformly being slashed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2026
Sigurd slashed his sword past the misshapen horseshoes, and they both jerked to a stop.
From Anya and the Dragon by Sofiya Pasternack
By slashing prices on some core items, Primark is likely hoping to woo shoppers with low-cost staples, in the same way that supermarkets attract customers with cheap milk and bananas, Berg says.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
Chait has said he is prepared to take the steps necessary to balance the books — and the district has committed to slashing thousands of jobs, among other measures.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
The country is in the grips of a humanitarian crisis, exacerbated by the slashing of foreign assistance and the need to integrate millions of Afghans pushed back from neighbouring Iran and Pakistan.
From Barron's ● Jul. 12, 2026
Just outside the ring, Edison’s latest invention—a kinetograph, the first motion-picture camera—was recording the fight, which lasted “six slashing rounds,” according to a poster that later promoted the contest.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026
By the time she returned to the Coast Guard, the government was slashing jobs right and left.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
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.
