slur

[slur]

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verb (used with object), slurred, slur·ring.

to pass over lightly or without due mention or consideration (often followed by over): The report slurred over her contribution to the enterprise.
to pronounce (a syllable, word, etc.) indistinctly by combining, reducing, or omitting sounds, as in hurried or careless utterance.
to cast aspersions on; calumniate; disparage; depreciate: The candidate was viciously slurred by his opponent.

Music.
1. to sing to a single syllable or play without a break (two or more tones of different pitch).
2. to mark with a slur.
Chiefly British Dialect. to smirch, sully, or stain.

verb (used without object), slurred, slur·ring.

to read, speak, or sing hurriedly and carelessly.

noun

a slurred utterance or sound.
a disparaging remark or a slight: quick to take offense at a slur;an ethnic slur against people of Irish descent.
a blot or stain, as upon reputation: a slur on his good name.
Music.
1. the combination of two or more tones of different pitch, sung to a single syllable or played without a break.
2. a curved mark indicating this.
Printing. a spot that is blurred or unclear as a result of paper, plate, or blanket slippage.

Origin of slur

1595–1605; apparently of multiple orig.; in senses referring to a gliding or smooth transition, compare Low German slurren to shuffle, Dutch sleuren to trail, drag; in senses referring to a smirch or stain, compare Middle Dutch slore (Dutch sloor) sluttish woman

Related formsun·slurred, adjective

Synonyms for slur

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1. slight, disregard, gloss. 3. slander, asperse. 8. innuendo, insult, affront. 9. stigma, disgrace.

Antonyms for slur

8. compliment.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for slur

innuendo, accusation, put-down, smear, garble, mispronounce, animadversion, disgrace, dump, aspersion, slam, rap, stigma, obloquy, blot, stricture, discredit, blur, stain, insinuation

Examples from the Web for slur

Contemporary Examples of slur

One slur is not good, while another is fine because the league has not lost any money in a consumer boycott of the name.
Mark Cuban Warns That Basketball Players Could Get the Sterling Treatment Next
Evan Weiner
June 3, 2014
Also, horrible-person-check yourself, which means NO use of the n-word, the f-word—any slur, really.
15 Achievable New Year’s Resolutions
Kelly Williams Brown
December 31, 2013
Cooper added: “If Alec Baldwin had yelled the n-word to that photographer, or yelled some anti-Jewish slur, it would be over!”
Should MSNBC Fire Alec Baldwin and Martin Bashir?
Lloyd Grove
November 23, 2013
It'd be a challenge to find a kid with a disability who hasn't had that slur thrown his or her way.
What Hawking and Jerusalem Day Have in Common
Maysoon Zayid
May 13, 2013
It seems like only yesterday that people who cited Hagel's past views and comments were accused of practicing a politics of slur.
Is There Anything Chuck Hagel Won't Say?
David Frum
January 9, 2013

Historical Examples of slur

He had not forgotten the slur of the captain and had spirit enough to resent it.
A Waif of the Mountains
Edward S. Ellis
The face of the American flushed at the slur, but he held himself in hand.
Up the Forked River
Edward Sylvester Ellis
There was the slur of Flagg about his slack efficiency in meeting the schemes of Craig.
Joan of Arc of the North Woods
Holman Day
"Your words are hardly worthy of you, Fred," replied Jack, hurt at the slur.
Two Boys in Wyoming
Edward S. Ellis
In one case, where Mark has a slur on physicians, Luke eliminates it.
Old-Time Makers of Medicine
James J. Walsh

British Dictionary definitions for slur

slur

verb slurs, slurring or slurred (mainly tr)

(often foll by over) to treat superficially, hastily, or without due deliberation; gloss
(also intr) to pronounce or utter (words, etc) indistinctly
to speak disparagingly of or cast aspersions on
music to execute (a melodic interval of two or more notes) smoothly, as in legato performance
(also intr) to blur or smear
archaic to stain or smear; sully

noun

an indistinct sound or utterance
a slighting remark; aspersion
a stain or disgrace, as upon one's reputation; stigma
music
1. a performance or execution of a melodic interval of two or more notes in a part
2. the curved line (⌢ or ⌣) indicating this
a blur or smear

Word Origin for slur

C15: probably from Middle Low German; compare Middle Low German slūren to drag, trail, Middle Dutch sloren, Dutch sleuren

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for slur

"deliberate slight, disparaging or slighting remark," c.1600, from dialectal slur "thin or fluid mud," from Middle English slore (mid-15c.), cognate with Middle Low German sluren, Middle Dutch sloren "to trail in mud." Related to East Frisian sluren "to go about carelessly," Norwegian slora "to be careless." Literal sense of "a mark, stain, smear" is from 1660s in English. The musical sense (1746) is from the notion of "sliding." Meaning "act or habit of slurring" in speech is from 1882.

c.1600, "smear, soil by smearing," from slur (n.). Meaning "disparage depreciate" is from 1650s. In music, from 1746; of speech, from 1893. Related: Slurred; slurring.