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Slag

//slæɡ// noun, verb, slang

Definitions

Noun

1
Waste material from a mine. countable, uncountable
"After the big village, the scenery had returned to grass and woodland, but this had now given way to ugly mounds of discarded slag. Beyond the slag was a colliery with its machinery and smoking chimney, making the whole area look grim and austere."
2
the scum formed by oxidation at the surface of molten metals wordnet
3
Scum that forms on the surface of molten metal. countable, uncountable
"2006, Melisa W. Lai, Michele Burns Ewald, Chapter 95: Silver, Martin J. Wonsiewicz, Karen G. Edmonson, Peter J. Boyle (editors), Goldfrank′s Toxicologic Emergencies, 8th Edition, page 1358, In Asia Minor and on islands in the Aegean Sea, dumps of slag (scum formed by molten metal surface oxidation) demonstrate that silver was being separated from lead as early as 5000 BC."
4
Impurities formed and separated out when a metal is smelted from ore; vitrified cinders. countable, uncountable
"Buried within the Mediterranean littoral are some seventy to ninety million tons of slag from ancient smelting, about a third of it concentrated in Iberia. This ceaseless industrial fueling caused the deforestation of an estimated fifty to seventy million acres of woodlands."
5
Hard aggregate remaining as a residue from blast furnaces, sometimes used as a surfacing material. countable, uncountable
"During blast furnace operations, the plant operator pays careful attention to the slag chemistry (both composition and variability) as slag behavior is a major consideration in ensuring the quality of hot metal (molten iron)."

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6
Scoria associated with a volcano. countable, uncountable
7
A prostitute or promiscuous woman; a slut. Australia, Ireland, UK, countable, derogatory, slang, uncountable
"1984, Tristan Jones, Heart of Oak, 1997, paperback edition, page 260, We never talked about that, of course; we talked about how we could find a woman in the Dilly, and if the Yanks had taken them all, how we could always resort to the peroxided older slags who hung out around the side doors to Waterloo station and did knee tremblers for the Yanks."
8
A coward. Ireland, UK, countable, dated, derogatory, uncountable
9
A contemptible person, a scumbag. Cockney, Ireland, UK, countable, derogatory, uncountable
"The writers took it for granted that England, with its working class composed of slags, purple-nosed losers, and animals fed on pinball, pornography and junk-food, was disintegrating into terminal class-struggle."

Verb

1
To produce slag. transitive
2
convert into slag wordnet
3
To become slag; to agglomerate when heated below the fusion point. intransitive
4
To reduce to slag. transitive
5
To talk badly about; to malign or denigrate (someone). UK, slang, transitive
"If you slag off the other person, then—to the extent that your child identifies with that person as their parent—you are slagging off a part of them."

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6
To make fun of; to take the piss (tease, ridicule or mock). Ireland, slang, transitive
7
To spit. Australia, intransitive, slang

Etymology

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Middle Low German slagge, slaggen (“slag, dross”), from Old Saxon *slaggo, from Proto-West Germanic *slaggō, from Proto-Germanic *slaggô, from Proto-Germanic *slagōną (“to strike”) + *-gô (diminutive suffix). Compare Middle Low German slāgen (“to strike”), since originally the splinters struck off from the metal by hammering, from *slagōn, from Proto-West Germanic *slagōn. Compare also Old Saxon slegi, from Proto-West Germanic *slagi. See also Dutch slak, German Schlacke, Swedish slagg; also compare English slay.

Etymology 2

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