slew
2 of 4past tense of slay
slew
4 of 4less common spelling of slough entry 1 sense 1b
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Slew appeared as an American colloquialism in the early 19th century. Its origins are unclear, but it is perhaps taken from the Irish slua, a descendant of Old Irish slúag, meaning "army," "host," or "throng." Slew has several homographs (words that are spelled alike but different in meaning, derivation, or pronunciation) in English. These include: slew as the past tense of the verb slay; slew as a spelling variant of slough, a word which is also commonly pronounced \SLOO\ and which means "swamp," "an inlet on a river," or "a creek in a marsh or tide flat"; and the verb slew, meaning "to turn, veer, or skid."
Synonyms
Noun
- abundance
- barrel
- basketful
- boatload
- bucket
- bunch
- bundle
- bushel
- carload
- chunk
- deal
- dozen
- fistful
- gobs
- good deal
- heap
- hundred
- lashings [chiefly British]
- lashins
- loads
- lot
- mass
- mess
- mountain
- much
- multiplicity
- myriad
- oodles
- pack
- passel
- peck
- pile
- plateful
- plenitude
- plentitude
- plenty
- pot
- potful
- profusion
- quantity
- raft
- reams
- scads
- sheaf
- shipload
- sight
- spate
- stack
- store
- ton
- truckload
- volume
- wad
- wealth
- yard
Examples of slew in a Sentence
Prarthana Prakash, Fortune Europe, 16 Apr. 2024
The Biden administration will give up to $6.4 billion in grants to Samsung, one of the world’s largest chipmakers, the latest in a slew of awards intended to shore up domestic production of cutting-edge semiconductors.
—Don Clark, New York Times, 15 Apr. 2024
But deals have been harder to come by as a slew of lenders went bankrupt during the crypto market crash in 2022.
—David Pan, Fortune, 14 Apr. 2024
These are the sorts of questions kicking around Sacramento, where lawmakers are considering a slew of proposals to regulate artificial intelligence.
—Gene Maddaus, Variety, 9 Apr. 2024
The monumental model launches alongside a slew of other new watches within the Octo family as well as new additions to the brand’s iconic Serpenti collection.
—Cait Bazemore, Robb Report, 8 Apr. 2024
They are accompanied by a slew of works on paper, including drawings, photographs, prints and books, all of it filling the BCAM building’s second floor.
—Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times, 7 Apr. 2024
And even as Netanyahu faces a slew of political headwinds, none of the members of that governing coalition, or of his own party, have indicated any serious intent of leaving the government and triggering its collapse.
—Jeremy Diamond, CNN, 5 Apr. 2024
Rescue effort continues in massive Taiwan earthquake Rescuers in Taiwan continue to comb through the rubble Thursday to find scores of people missing or trapped by a massive earthquake, while experts say a slew of aftershocks could make the search and rescue even more dangerous.
—USA TODAY, 4 Apr. 2024
Ezra Dyer, Car and Driver, 27 Aug. 2023
Much of bonds’ gains came in the 1980s, when the Fed under Paul Volcker eased off its punishingly high interest rates, which slew that era’s double-digit inflation.
—Larry Light, Fortune, 13 Oct. 2022
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'slew.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Slew.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slew. Accessed 24 Apr. 2024.
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