slay
Americanverb (used with object)
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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
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to destroy; extinguish.
Together we are slaying our self-doubt and working towards our dreams.
- Synonyms:
- ruin, annihilate
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Slang.
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to impress strongly and favorably; overwhelm, especially by humor.
Your jokes slay me.
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to make a strong favorable impression with.
She really slayed her performance last night.
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sley.
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Obsolete. to strike.
verb (used without object)
-
to kill or murder.
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Slang. to have a strong favorable effect; to be remarkably impressive.
His whole album slays.
noun
idioms
verb
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archaic to kill, esp violently
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slang to impress (someone) sexually
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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
- slayable adjective
- slayer noun
- unslayable adjective
Etymology
Origin of slay
First recorded before 900; Middle English sleen, slayn, Old English slēan; cognate with Dutch slaan, German schlagen, Old Norse slā, Gothic slahan “to strike, beat”
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.
But cultists are cultists, and when a local man starts recruiting teens to slay the demons haunting the area, an investigation by the three reveals his much larger, more elder-goddish plans.
Sources have also said he had been acting strangely and got into some type of argument with Rob Reiner at a holiday party at talk show host Conan O’Brien’s house hours before the slaying.
From Los Angeles Times
After seeing the Marías in concert, the couple hit up the band to further maximize their joint slay — and revamp the classic as a bilingual dream-pop track, simply named “Ojos Tristes.”
From Los Angeles Times
All charges have been dismissed against one of four suspects in the 2023 slaying of Oakland police Officer Tuan Le, Alameda County D.A. says.
From Los Angeles Times
She’s been playing that song where Beyoncé sings about slaying on a loop for a couple of days.
From Literature
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.
