slapdash

English

WOTD – 4 February 2007

Etymology

slap +‎ dash. First attested in the late 17th century, meaning "careless".

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈslæpdæʃ/
Audio (US) (file)
Audio (AU) (file)

Adjective

slapdash (comparative more slapdash, superlative most slapdash)

Produced or carried out hastily; haphazard; careless.
- 1989, H. T. Willetts (translator), Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (author), August 1914, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN, page 114:
  They had seen Poland, and that was the sort of slovenly, slapdash place they were used to, but once across the German frontier they found everything—crops, roads, buildings—uncannily different.
- 2014, A teacher, "Choosing a primary school: a teacher's guide for parents", The Guardian, 23 September 2014:
  When you're in the front entrance, get a feel for what's going on. Tours are never timed to coincide with breaks but if there are any children milling about, see what they're up to. If they're on a dutiful errand, for example delivering registers, the school probably encourages a responsible attitude. If they're play-fighting in the corridor without consequence, it tells a less impressive story and could mean a slapdash approach to discipline.

Synonyms

See also Thesaurus:careless

Translations

done hastily

Catalan: barroer (ca) m
Danish: forhastet
Dutch: gehaast (nl)
Finnish: hutiloitu
French: bâclé (fr)
German: schludrig, flüchtig (de), hopplahop, blindlings (de), oberflächlich (de), hudelig, schlampert, schlampig (de)
Maori: tūpatokore, kōkau, mākūare, hakirara, hakurara, hakurara

Norwegian: forhasta
Polish: niedbały (pl) m, niestaranny m
Portuguese: feito nas coxas
Russian: поспе́шный (ru) (pospéšnyj), небре́жный (ru) (nebréžnyj)
Serbo-Croatian: šlampavo (sh) n
Swedish: hafsig

Adverb

slapdash (comparative more slapdash, superlative most slapdash)

In a hasty or careless manner.
Directly, right there; slap-bang.
Van Eyck signed his portrait of the Arnolfinis slapdash in the center of the painting.
With a slap; all at once; slap.
(Can we find and add a quotation of Prior to this entry?)

Synonyms

(in a hasty manner): carelessly, haphazardly, hastily
(directly): directly

Translations

in a hasty or careless manner

Catalan: barroerament (ca)
Danish: jasket
Dutch: haastig (nl), nonchalant (nl)
German: hopplahopp (de), schludrig, schlampig (de)

Maori: tūpatokore
Polish: byle jak (pl)
Russian: на́спех (ru) (náspex), как попа́ло (kak popálo), кое-ка́к (ru) (koje-kák), торопли́во (ru) (toroplívo), неря́шливо (ru) (nerjášlivo), на ско́рую ру́ку (ru) (na skóruju rúku), тяп-ля́п (ru) (tjap-ljáp)
Serbo-Croatian: šlampavo (sh)

Verb

slapdash (third-person singular simple present slapdashes, present participle slapdashing, simple past and past participle slapdashed)

(colloquial) To apply, or apply something to, in a hasty, careless, or rough manner; to roughcast.
to slapdash mortar or paint on a wall
to slapdash a wall