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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."
Examples of slew in a Sentence
Anton Money, Outdoor Life, 4 June 2026
David Carle and the Pioneers slew both Big Ten Goliaths to remind everyone that DU remains the premier men’s college hockey program.
—Corey Masisak, Denver Post, 12 Apr. 2026
The telescope will slew to the rocket in real time.
—Harry Bennett, Space.com, 31 Mar. 2026
Starshade concepts, placing a second spacecraft tens of thousands of miles in front of a telescope to create a tiny artificial eclipse, would need two launches and vast quantities of fuel to slew between targets.
—Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 3 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for slew
Cite this Entry
“Slew.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slew. Accessed 12 Jun. 2026.
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