slaver
1 Americanverb (used without object)
-
slavers,
present (3rd person singular)
-
slavered,
past participle, past
-
slavering
present participle
-
to let saliva run from the mouth; slobber; drool.
-
to fawn.
verb (used with object)
-
slavers,
present (3rd person singular)
-
slavered,
past participle, past
-
slavering
present participle
noun
-
saliva coming from the mouth.
verb
-
to dribble saliva
-
(often foll by over)
-
to fawn or drool (over someone)
-
to show great desire (for); lust (after)
-
noun
-
saliva dribbling from the mouth
-
informal drivel
noun
-
an owner of or dealer in slaves
-
another name for slave ship
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
slaversimple
-
slaverssimple
-
have slaveredperfect
-
has slaveredperfect
-
am slaveringprogressive
-
are slaveringprogressive
-
is slaveringprogressive
-
have been slaveringperfect progressive
-
has been slaveringperfect progressive
Past
-
slaveredsimple
-
had slaveredperfect
-
was slaveringprogressive
-
were slaveringprogressive
-
had been slaveringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of slaver1
First recorded in 1815–25; slave + -er 1
Origin of slaver2
1275–1325; Middle English slaver (noun), slaveren (v.), probably < Scandinavian; compare Icelandic slafra to slobber
Explanation
Someone who brutally and cruelly forces people into servitude is a slaver. If you come across this word being used as a verb, it has an entirely different meaning (and pronunciation), to slobber or drool. You can use the historical word slaver to talk about the slave traders who captured and sold human beings into slavery, as well as the slave owners who forced enslaved people to work. It also describes the ships that transported enslaved Africans: "Many people died at sea on the slavers." When used as a verb, slaver is pronounced with a short a and it has a much gentler meaning. Your dog might start to slaver as you pour food into her dish.
Vocabulary lists containing slaver
The Tyrant's Tomb
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Tales from Earthsea
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The Mechanical Mind of John Coggin
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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.
See Examples For:
He was invited to join a group of slaver descendants confronting the past and through them, forged relationships in the country where Africans were once owned by his ancestor.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2023
The Portuguese monarchy also hired explorers such as Alvise Cadamosto, a Venetian slaver sent to scout the region of Senegambia.
From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022
The setting sun seems to set the ocean ablaze, while to its left, the tossing slaver appears to be swallowed up by a knifed spray of white.
From New York Times ● Apr. 7, 2022
“Is he looking for the whole truth here? The fact that he was a slaver and ran slaves up to the colonies? That’s what the historical documents say,” Hunt said.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 7, 2022
The Tribesman's mouth drops open, and the slaver regards me as if I'm a rat who has begun juggling.
From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir
Thus the British, who had been such enthusiastic slavers, went on to force Muslim rulers to end their own version of the practice.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2025
By that time, white slavers had grown so accustomed to ignoring the Emancipation Proclamation, issued more than two years earlier, that even after Juneteenth, the institution of enslavement lingered on.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2023
The kings of Whydah had a very close relationship with the European slavers who established trading centers along the Gulf of Guinea.
From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022
They could be lamentations or celebrations; at the same time, they could serve as a means of stealthy communication, spreading news outside the ken of white slavers.
From New York Times ● Sep. 15, 2022
“Great Cleon sought only to strike down the vile slavers of Yunkai.”
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
New York’s talent-hungry musical theater slavered for a follow-up.
From New York Times ● Oct. 8, 2019
When the film played at Cannes in spring 2001, it was slavered over by critics; on release that autumn, it hit big.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 15, 2017
Then he did a bit in which he slavered over Sabra hummus and Rold Gold pretzels.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 12, 2015
They slavered over the delicious incongruity of this young thruster mixing it up with gimlet-eyed corporate lawyers, and winning.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2015
The beast has slavered over much that will be sold for human food afterwards.
From Round the Wonderful World by A. S. (Archibald Stevenson) Forrest
And those internal and external opponents of Boris Johnson slavering at the prospect of Whatsapp messages and potentially embarrassing photographs from inside Downing Street being made public are likely to remain unsated.
From BBC ● Jan. 27, 2022
Miller took one of the better-known characters from Stephen King's ginormous novel and transformed him into a slavering, blithering idiot, adding one more thing to despise atop a mountain of mediocrity.
From Salon ● Feb. 12, 2021
With Star Wars: The Last Jedi, writer-director Rian Johnson made a point of answering questions set up by The Force Awakens, and giving fans some answers they were slavering for.
From The Verge ● Dec. 18, 2017
Even before the break, Mailer, one of his closest friends, called his work “brutal — coarse, intimate, snide, grasping, groping, slavering, slippery of reference, crude and naturally tasteless.”
From New York Times ● Mar. 17, 2017
So it went on, almost as unceasing as the waterfall, only interrupted by a faint noise of slavering and gurgling.
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
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.
