slue
English
Alternative forms
- (mostly British) slew
Etymology
Unknown. Attested from the late 18th century.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /sluː/
Audio (UK) (file) - Rhymes: -uː
- Homophones: slew, slough
Verb
slue (third-person singular simple present slues, present participle sluing or slueing, simple past and past participle slued)
- (transitive, nautical) To rotate something on an axis.
- 1841, B.J. Totten, Naval Text-Book, page 10:
- raise the boom […] then slue it by a slue-rope on its heel, until the square hole in the cap is fair with the tenon
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- (transitive) To turn something sharply.
- 1861, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations:
- […] then he incidentally spat and said something to the other convict, and they laughed, and slued themselves round with a clink of their coupling manacle,
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- (intransitive) To rotate on an axis; to pivot.
- (intransitive) To slide off course; to skid.
Translations
to rotate something on an axis
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to turn something sharply
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to pivot
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to skid
Noun
slue (plural slues)
- The act of sluing or the place to which something has slued.
- A slough; a run or wet place.
Translations
act of sluing
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References
- Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.
- Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “slew”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Anagrams
- LEUs, Lues, Luse, lues