slurp
Americanverb (used with object)
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slurps,
present (3rd person singular)
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slurped,
past participle, past
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slurping
present participle
verb (used without object)
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slurps,
present (3rd person singular)
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slurped,
past participle, past
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slurping
present participle
noun
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slurps
plural
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an intake of food or drink with a noisy sucking sound.
He finished his milk in about three slurps.
-
any lapping or splashing sound.
the slurp of the waves against the hull.
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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slurpsimple
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slurpssimple
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have slurpedperfect
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has slurpedperfect
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am slurpingprogressive
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are slurpingprogressive
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is slurpingprogressive
-
have been slurpingperfect progressive
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has been slurpingperfect progressive
Past
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slurpedsimple
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had slurpedperfect
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was slurpingprogressive
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were slurpingprogressive
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had been slurpingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of slurp
First recorded in 1640–50, slurp is from the Dutch word slurpen (v.)
Explanation
If you suck your food noisily into your mouth, you slurp it. In Japan, it's considered good manners to slurp your noodles. Don't try that in England! There are some foods and drinks that you'll almost inevitably slurp, like hot soup and thick, cold milkshakes. Although fastidious eaters in the US might consider it bad form to slurp the foam off your cappuccino or slurp up the last few ramen noodles from your bowl, in some cultures it shows appreciation for your food. Slurp comes from the imitative Dutch word slurpen.
Vocabulary lists containing slurp
"On the Menu" and "Find the Adaptations"
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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:
Simply put, this is the time to indulge in a summer cobbler, slurp on a delicious cooked sesame noodle salad, or whip up an easy garden-fresh pasta.
From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2026
Culex mosquitoes typically target birds rather than humans, and tend to be satisfied with one slurp of blood, making them comparatively less annoying than Aedes mosquitoes.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2025
The King pulled his pint before Mr Mills asked him if he was "going to have a slurp of that".
From BBC ● Feb. 24, 2025
Like our babies, maggots can’t chew, so they vomit digestive enzymes onto the wound, dissolving the now-loosened tissue into a tasty slurry, which they can slurp up.
From Slate ● Feb. 25, 2024
There wasn’t even a fork clink or a milk slurp.
From "Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics" by Chris Grabenstein
Plants are green because such wavelengths of light help it keep a consistent vacuum on the electromagnetic energy it slurps from the sun.
From Salon ● Nov. 16, 2024
Brian Robb, the overnight race leader, slurps his way through 57 yoghurt tubes, the sort more commonly seen in a child’s lunchbox.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2024
Seated on plastic chairs next to a street food stand tucked in an alleyway, the 47-year-old Haitian slurps orange-colored soup out of a metal bowl next to his 9-year-old son.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 5, 2023
It slurps and slithers around in your head in great smeary splodges, like a cornucopia of slugs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2022
I want to be here, on Tuesday, in May, sitting in the red- topped booth at Sunnysides, watching Cordelia as she delicately slurps the last of her milkshake up through the straws.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
Men and women from their 20s to their 70s slurped hakka noodles and sipped pinot grigio.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
Soup Drops “will have soup fans feeling like they just slurped a spoonful of Progresso’s iconic Chicken Noodle Soup that they know and love,” the brand explained.
From Salon ● Jan. 17, 2025
The two expressed that they were impressed, as they slurped from tasting cups with excitement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 15, 2024
Latex floating on the top of the remaining liquid is slurped up with a pipette and rinsed up to three times for purification, and then dried.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 23, 2024
She humphed and hemmed and slurped her coffee without answering, but as soon as I’d gotten my book again and was settled down on the couch and reading, she said, “It’s onto four o’clock.”
From "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson
They sit around what resembles a school science lab sniffing coffee beans and slurping coffee so aggressively that there’s loud music playing to drown them out.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 15, 2026
I had to look as though I was enjoying watching Father Christmas giving gifts to the children of some of the players and the wife of one of the staff slurping back oysters.
From BBC ● Dec. 23, 2024
While slurping, the insect excretes a substance that weakens the tree's defenses and causes damage that impedes the flow of nutrients between root and crown, he said.
From Science Daily ● May 14, 2024
Perhaps we in the press were still hungover after celebrating ourselves by schmoozing with celebrities and slurping up to politicians at the White House Correspondents Dinner the night before.
From Salon ● May 2, 2024
All the trolls were slurping it down like it was honey, but that made it even less appetizing.
From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff
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.
