Slender
adj, noun, slang ·Common ·Middle school level
Definitions
- 1 A simple country gentleman. UK, obsolete, slang
"[…] the fantastic pilgrimages imposed on the "Cousin Slenders" of the world by their more facetious comrades […]"
- 1 Thin; slim.
"A rod is a long slender pole used for angling."
- 2 Meagre; deficient. figuratively
"Being a person of slender means, he was unable to afford any luxuries."
- 3 Palatalized.
- 1 being of delicate or slender build wordnet
- 2 small in quantity wordnet
- 3 having little width in proportion to the length or height wordnet
- 4 very narrow wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"We have only a slender chance of success."
Etymology
From Middle English slendre, sclendre, from Old French esclendre (“thin, slender”), from Middle Dutch slinder (“thin, lank”), from Proto-Germanic *slindraz (“sliding, slippery”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleydʰ- (“to slip”). Cognate with Bavarian Schlenderling (“that which dangles”), German schlendern (“to saunter, stroll”), Dutch slidderen, slinderen (“to wriggle, creep like a serpent”), Low German slindern (“to slide on ice”). More at slide, slither.
From the character of Abraham Slender in Shakespeare's play The Merry Wives of Windsor.