slay
Americanverb (used with object)
-
slays,
present (3rd person singular)
-
slayed,
past participle, past
-
slew,
past
-
slain,
past participle
-
slaying
present participle
-
to kill by violence.
In this game, your goal is to slay the evil dragon and take his hoard.
- Synonyms:
- assassinate, butcher, massacre, slaughter, murder
-
to destroy; extinguish.
Together we are slaying our self-doubt and working towards our dreams.
- Synonyms:
- ruin, annihilate
-
Slang.
-
to impress strongly and favorably; overwhelm, especially by humor.
Your jokes slay me.
-
to make a strong favorable impression with.
She really slayed her performance last night.
-
-
sley.
-
Obsolete. to strike.
verb (used without object)
-
slays,
present (3rd person singular)
-
slayed,
past participle, past
-
slew,
past
-
slain,
past participle
-
slaying
present participle
-
to kill or murder.
-
Slang. to have a strong favorable effect; to be remarkably impressive.
His whole album slays.
noun
idioms
verb
-
archaic to kill, esp violently
-
slang to impress (someone) sexually
-
obsolete to strike
Usage
What else does slay mean? Slay can mean "to kill a person or animal," "to make someone laugh," "to have sex with someone," or "to do something spectacularly well," especially when it comes to fashion, artistic performance, or self-confidence.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
slaysimple
-
slayssimple
-
have slainperfect
-
have slayedperfect
-
has slainperfect
-
has slayedperfect
-
am slayingprogressive
-
are slayingprogressive
-
is slayingprogressive
-
have been slayingperfect progressive
-
has been slayingperfect progressive
Past
-
slayedsimple
-
slewsimple
-
had slainperfect
-
had slayedperfect
-
was slayingprogressive
-
were slayingprogressive
-
had been slayingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of slay
First recorded before 900; Middle English sleen, slayn, Old English slฤan; cognate with Dutch slaan, German schlagen, Old Norse slฤ, Gothic slahan โto strike, beatโ
Explanation
Slay means to kill in a violent way. It has a mythic quality. You might slay the red knight. You might slay the dragon. You might slay the demon. But you probably wouldn't slay an annoying mosquito. Slay is an old word associated with knights and dragons. Like many old words it has some funky forms. When you killed someone or something in the past you say slew, as in "St. George slew the dragon." When you've already done it, you say you have slain.
Vocabulary lists containing slay
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, Act IV
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"A Sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury
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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:
While the lawyer protagonists are portrayed as the Davids trying to slay the giants, they aren’t entirely altruistic.
From The Wall Street Journal โ Sep. 3, 2026
See: Warsh says he’s determined to slay inflation.
From MarketWatch โ Jul. 2, 2026
“My friend Chrissie is a champion of champions and as such she will slay this monster again,” Navratilova wrote.
From Los Angeles Times โ Jun. 26, 2026
"My friend Chrissie is a champion of champions and as such she will slay this monster again," said long-time rival and friend Martina Navratilova.
From BBC โ Jun. 25, 2026
“The heart and the brain are surest. Witches can be tricky. This is the only talisman I am certain will slay Muriel.”
From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull
If Evil-Lyn can stop Adam with a freeze-ray, why does she wait until he slays many of her colleagues to do so?
From The Wall Street Journal โ Jun. 4, 2026
Powell slays a dragon, he listens to Van Halen, he quotes William Wallace, and carves a self-portrait out of a tree.
From Slate โ Feb. 10, 2025
It's about David, the shepherd boy who battles the giant Goliath, and against the odds, slays him.
From BBC โ Apr. 12, 2024
Later, Salazar slays a lion — played by an actor who roars while aggressively waving a hula hoop lined with streamers — which elicits a similar crowd reaction.
From Los Angeles Times โ Nov. 13, 2021
"It is the sword that slays the season," he replied, and soon after the white raven came from Oldtown bringing word of autumn, so doubtless he was right.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
He has won every election by a landslide, slayed the dragons, corraled the wild beasts and brought peace, tranquility and a great economy to his kingdom.
From Salon โ Aug. 14, 2026
Moderates are taking the proposal in stride, declaring victory after having slayed the sort of overhauls that Roy and others were pushing for.
From Slate โ May 13, 2025
"We literally ran from the Radisson Red, there were no soundchecks and Daniel went on and just absolutely slayed the audience. He was just sensational," he said.
From BBC โ May 6, 2024
Godzilla finally made it to the Oscars this year — and slayed.
From Seattle Times โ Mar. 10, 2024
Girls wear their hair colored, curled, laid, and slayed.
From "The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas
Because cortisol is something that can be fairly easily and quantifiably measured, and research shows that high cortisol can be a feature of a slew of problems, it’s an appealing candidate.
From Slate โ Oct. 9, 2026
A slew of injuries, with mechanical issues layered on top, had other plans.
From Los Angeles Times โ Oct. 6, 2026
The buzz has also spawned a slew of similar offerings, both open-source models and tools from established companies.
From The Wall Street Journal โ Oct. 2, 2026
The mission was expected to help SpaceX test a slew of improvements to Starship and its Super Heavy booster, setting up what the company called the “next phase” of making the rocket fully reusable.
From MarketWatch โ Sep. 28, 2026
We hadn’t been driving for a minute before he started asking a whole slew of questions.
From "Bud, Not Buddy" by Christopher Paul Curtis
Andrew Montlake, chief executive of mortgage broker Coreco, said that the latest data showed that "the inflation dragon has not been fully slain".
From BBC โ Sep. 16, 2026
In Sophocles, Antigone, Oedipus’ headstrong daughter, defies the edict issued by her uncle Creon, the newly deputized king, declaring that her slain brother Polynices is an enemy of the state and therefore ineligible for burial.
From Los Angeles Times โ Sep. 11, 2026
South Korean police raided the Starbucks national headquarters Wednesday, the chain's local operator told AFP, following allegations an advertising campaign defamed activists slain in 1980 pro-democracy protests.
From Barron's โ Aug. 5, 2026
Shayna Aspinwall, the widow of slain math teacher and football coach Richard Aspinwall, 39, called Gray a “pathetic excuse for a father.”
From The Wall Street Journal โ Jul. 30, 2026
Whatever had slain the kudu wasn’t visible, but it—or they, since it must have been jackals—had to be nearby.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
Her slaying shocked the world and put Malta, the European Union's smallest member state, in the spotlight over its apparent rule-of-law failings.
From Barron's โ Sep. 2, 2026
County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved reinstating the reward in the decade-old slaying and increasing it by $10,000.
From Los Angeles Times โ Jun. 11, 2026
His whereabouts are known by the loathsome twin giant worms, a brother and sister, who took over the planet Nal Hutta after the slaying of its gangster boss, Jabba the Hutt.
From The Wall Street Journal โ May 21, 2026
“In many ways, he always thought that he was Saint George slaying the dragon,” the author writes.
From The Wall Street Journal โ Mar. 22, 2026
Hunters whose courage was thus fortified were bound to be more successful when slaying these formidable beasts with their primitive weapons.
From "History of Art, Volume 1" by H.W. Janson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, ยฉ Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritageยฎ Idioms Dictionary copyright ยฉ 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
