Slate
[sleɪt] or [slet]
Definition
(noun.) (formerly) a writing tablet made of slate.
(noun.) a list of candidates nominated by a political party to run for election to public offices.
(noun.) a fine-grained metamorphic rock that can be split into thin layers.
(noun.) thin layers of rock used for roofing.
(verb.) designate or schedule; 'He slated his talk for 9 AM'; 'She was slated to be his successor'.
(verb.) cover with slate; 'slate the roof'.
(verb.) enter on a list or slate for an election; 'He was slated for borough president'.
Inputed by Jackson--From WordNet
Definition
(v. t.) An argillaceous rock which readily splits into thin plates; argillite; argillaceous schist.
(v. t.) Any rock or stone having a slaty structure.
(v. t.) A prepared piece of such stone.
(v. t.) A thin, flat piece, for roofing or covering houses, etc.
(v. t.) A tablet for writing upon.
(v. t.) An artificial material, resembling slate, and used for the above purposes.
(v. t.) A thin plate of any material; a flake.
(v. t.) A list of candidates, prepared for nomination or for election; a list of candidates, or a programme of action, devised beforehand.
(v. t.) To cover with slate, or with a substance resembling slate; as, to slate a roof; to slate a globe.
(v. t.) To register (as on a slate and subject to revision), for an appointment.
(v. t.) To set a dog upon; to bait; to slat. See 2d Slat, 3.
Editor: Samantha
Definition
n. a highly metamorphosed argillaceous rock fine-grained and fissile and of a dull blue gray purple or green colour—used in thin slabs of small size for ordinary roofs and in larger slabs for dairy-fittings wash-tubs cisterns tables &c. and when polished for writing-slates and 'black-boards:' a piece of slate for roofing or for writing upon: a preliminary list of candidates before a caucus.—adj. bluish-gray slate-coloured.—v.t. to cover with slate: to enter on a slate.—ns. Slate′-axe a slater's tool a sax; Slate′-clay a fissile shale.—adjs. Slā′ted covered with slates; Slate′-gray of a light slate colour.—ns. Slate′-pen′cil a cut or turned stick of soft slate or of compressed moistened slate-powder for writing on slate; Slā′ter; Slā′tiness the quality of being slaty; Slā′ting the act of covering with slates: a covering of slates: materials for slating.—adj. Slā′ty resembling slate: having the nature or properties of slate.
v.t. to abuse criticise severely: (prov.) to set a dog at.—n. Slā′ting a severe criticism.
Typist: Nathaniel
Examples
- In disproof of which superfluous remark Sir Leicester has indignantly written on the slate, I am not. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- We were laughing over it when all of a sudden his eye _was_ on us, and he ordered Susie to bring up her slate. Louisa May Alcott. Little Women.
- The table is then pushed under a huge grinding machine and the slate surface is made plane, as nearly perfect as human ingenuity can make it. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- But I delivered this written communication (slate and all) with my own hand, and Joe received it as a miracle of erudition. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- They were of darkened red brick, brittle, with dark slate roofs. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- The slate comes into requisition again, but the word he wants to write he cannot remember. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- Its belly was white, and its legs shaded from the slate of its shoulders and hips to a vivid yellow at the feet. Edgar Rice Burroughs. A Princess of Mars.
- Look at those big, isolated clumps of building rising up above the slates, like brick islands in a lead-colored sea. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
- But that isn't a good word: he didn't tell them to write on slates. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- Who could live to gaze from day to day on bricks and slates who had once felt the influence of a scene like this? Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- A long room with three long rows of desks, and six of forms, and bristling all round with pegs for hats and slates. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- And, moreover, you need not for a moment to insinuate that the virtues have taken refuge in cottages and wholly abandoned slated houses. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- The roof of the chapel did _not_ fly off, which speaks volumes in praise of its solid slating. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
Typist: Randall