slew

1 of 4

noun

: a large number
a slew of books

slew

2 of 4

past tense of slay

slew

3 of 4

verb

variants or less commonly slue
slewed also slued; slewing also sluing; slews also slues

transitive verb

1
: to turn (something, such as a telescope or a ship's spar) about a fixed point that is usually the axis
2
: to cause to skid : veer
slew a car around a turn

intransitive verb

1
: to turn, twist, or swing about : pivot
2
: skid

slew

4 of 4

less common spelling of slough entry 1 sense 1b

Did you know?

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

Noun He has written a slew of books. we still have a slew of work to do on this project Verb He slewed the telescope three degrees south.
Recent Examples on the Web
These examples are automatically compiled from online sources to illustrate current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Noun
Tuesday saw a slew of other earning, including from Adidas, Lufthansa, Santander and BP, among others. Karen Gilchrist,holly Ellyatt, CNBC, 29 Oct. 2024 Digital operations bring a slew of task and process efficiencies, letting professionals quickly collect, store and analyze accurate job-site data, process invoices and payments, build better customer relationships and reallocate people and other resources to more business-critical tasks. Gary Specter, Forbes, 29 Oct. 2024
Verb
The telescope has, in fact, relied on a version of the one-gyro mode for all its science observations since 2021, using three gyros for slewing to a target, then stabilizing its view via a single gyro and a fine guidance sensor once data collection begins. Lee Billings, Scientific American, 5 June 2024 The scope will slew to it and an image will appear on your mobile device's screen. PCMAG, 16 May 2024 See all Example Sentences for slew 

Word History

Etymology

Noun

perhaps from Irish slua army, host, throng, from Old Irish slúag; akin to Lithuanian slaugyti to tend

Verb

origin unknown

First Known Use

Noun

1839, in the meaning defined above

Verb

circa 1769, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of slew was circa 1769

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Dictionary Entries Near slew

Cite this Entry

“Slew.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slew. Accessed 12 Nov. 2024.

Kids Definition

slew

1 of 4
ˈslü

past of slay

slew

2 of 4

variant of slough entry 1 sense 1

slew

3 of 4 verb
variants also slue
: to turn, twist, or swing about especially out of a course : veer

slew

4 of 4 noun
: a large number

More from Merriam-Webster on slew

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