Link Centre Dictionary

slug

UK/slʊɡ/ US/slʌɡ/ fairly common informal slang us
verb (2) noun (3)

verb

1.

strike heavily, especially with the fist or a bat

  • “He slugged me so hard that I passed out”
Synonyms
2.

be idle; exist in a changeless situation

  • “The old man sat and stagnated on his porch”
  • “He slugged in bed all morning”
Synonyms
Antonyms

noun

1.

a projectile that is fired from a gun

Synonyms
2.
3.

any of various terrestrial gastropods having an elongated slimy body and no external shell

Origin

Originally referred to a slow, lazy person, from Middle English slugge (“lazy person", also "sloth, slothfulness”), probably of either Old English or Old Norse origin; perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sliǵ-ōn, from *sley- (“smooth; slick; sticky; slimy”) or otherwise from the root of Old Norse slókr (“lazy person, oaf”), whence Icelandic slókur (“laziness”). Compare Norn slug (“lazy, slothful, sluggish”), dialectal Norwegian slugg (“a large, heavy body”), sluggje (“heavy, slow person”), Danish slog (“rascal, rogue”). Compare also Dutch slak (“snail, slug”). Doublet of slotch. The sense of a hitchhiking commuter is from the sense of a counterfeit bus token. Bus operators considered sluggers to be cheating as if they were using counterfeit tokens.

Phrases

  • banana slug
  • black slug
  • cherry slug
  • ghost slug
  • greenhouse slug
  • hump slug
  • land slug
  • leatherleaf slug

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

Parts

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.