slew
1 Americanverb
noun
-
slews
plural
verb
-
to twist or be twisted sideways, esp awkwardly
he slewed around in his chair
-
nautical to cause (a mast) to rotate in its step or (of a mast) to rotate in its step
noun
verb
noun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of slew
1830–40, < Irish sluagh crowd, throng, army, host
Explanation
Of all the many nouns referring to a large group of things, one of the most fun is slew, as in "I saw a whole slew of birds in the tree by the river." American English is constantly evolving, its richness coming from the many languages feeding into it. The noun slew, for instance, is from the Irish Gaelic sluagh, meaning "multitude." As an unrelated verb, it's the past tense of slay.
Vocabulary lists containing slew
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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St. Patrick's Day Vocabulary: Words With Irish and Gaelic Roots
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The Watsons Go to Birmingham
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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:
The property has hosted a slew of A-lister guests, including Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026
Holding court at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, the brokerage’s executives unveiled a slew of new tools and services.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026
Jailbreaks present a different kind of risk to those seen with the recent slew of high-profile AI incidents.
From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026
Beyond Coachella, YouTube doubled down on livestreaming during its presentation, unveiling a slew of new live and AI-powered tools.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026
That’s why after we’d tried a slew of other things, we found the best way to welcome new-free folks to the Settlement was to use that crying little brat, Emma Collins.
From "Elijah of Buxton" by Christopher Paul Curtis
For manager Brian Epstein, the very notion of the Beatles performing in any venue with slews of empty seats was a non-starter.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2025
Tourism on the whole is increasing, bringing slews of strangers to the idyllic island off the Washington coast.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 4, 2023
We link up a bunch of visits that are close together in the sky to avoid doing big, time-consuming slews.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 11, 2022
It’s a job in which you meet a slew of people and play in front of slews more.
From Washington Post ● May 7, 2022
Growned folks have whole slews of ways of crushing your spirits if you’re young.
From "Elijah of Buxton" by Christopher Paul Curtis
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.
