slide
/slʌɪd
/verb (past and past participle slid /slɪd/) [no object, with adverbial of direction]
1Move smoothly along a surface while maintaining continuous contact with it: she slid down the bank into the water (as adjective sliding) the tank should have a sliding glass cover...
- Images of powerful creatures slide along the smooth walls.
- He slid along the smooth floor, barely managing to scramble back and grab his gun before the walls smashed together.
- A folder was thrown onto the table; it slid along the smooth surface to land in front of her.
Synonyms
glide, move smoothly, slip, slither, skim, skate, glissade, coast, plane;
skid, slew, aquaplane
trickle, run, flow, pour, stream, course, spill
1.1 [with object and adverbial of direction] Move (something) smoothly along a surface: she slid the keys over the table...
- ‘My God, Marlon,’ purrs Sadie King as she slides her hand seductively along the vicar's leg while reaching for her pint of mild.
- We slide our hands along our scarves before wrapping them around our bodies.
- Then he grabbed the keys to his car, extending the ignition key, and grabbed her wrist, sliding it along forcefully.
1.2Move smoothly, quickly, or unobtrusively: [no object]: I quickly slid into a seat at the back of the hall [with object]: she slid the bottle into her pocket...
- He stepped onto the grooved rubber flooring that was likely used to siphon off wet shoes and boots, before quickly sliding into the front seat of the rail.
- I realized that I was still holding Sean's hand and dropped it quickly, sliding into the seat Amber had just vacated.
- I let go of Josh's arm as we reached his car, and quickly slid into the passenger seat.
Synonyms
creep, steal, slink, slip, glide, tiptoe, sidle, ease, edge
1.3Change gradually to a worse condition or lower level: the country faces the prospect of sliding from recession into slump...
- He explained that numbers attending the second level school have been sliding over the years, dropping from a height of 300 to just over 70.
- Fifth, there is a streak of melancholia in the English imagination, which can easily slide into a condition of fatalism.
- But even public rhetoric slid to new levels after it became clear that the Congress would form government at the Centre.
Synonyms
sink, fall, drop, descend;
decline, degenerate, deteriorate
noun
1A structure with a smooth sloping surface for children to slide down: Anna played on the slide...
- Across from school was a big public playground, filled with swing sets and slides and jungle gyms and merry-go-rounds.
- All the traditional features, such as climbing frames, swings, see-saws and slides, can be seen but there is so much more besides.
- We had real playgrounds with merry-go-rounds and metal slides and wooden see saws, all placed on concrete.
1.1A smooth stretch or slope of ice or packed snow for sliding or tobogganing on.Another time, I remember building a slide out of snow in the backyard with my sister and cousins....
- This fall a toboggan slide will be developed at Hespeler Park.
- The toboggan slide has three individual sliding channels and rubber tubes are provided for the riders.
2An act of sliding along a smooth surface: use an ice axe to halt a slide on ice and snow...
- A lone bolt would halt some of the slide, but not enough to warrant any comfort.
- Keeping the front wheels pointing in the direction of travel will also aid traction and help prevent a power-sapping slide.
- The slide came, the slope caught them and the wheels came off.
2.1 Baseball A sliding approach made to a base along the ground.There are plenty of movements, like diving catches, double play attempts or slides into bases that look and feel very natural to the game itself....
- This is bolstered with improved animation, so diving catches and slides into bases, for example, are extremely slick.
- Headfirst slides on the bases are off limits, as well.
2.2 [usually in combination or with noun modifier] (In skateboarding and snowboarding) a manoeuvre in which the board slides along an obstacle such as a rail or the edge of a ramp.
3A decline in value or quality: the current slide in house prices...
- Results released over the last two quarters, particularly in the United States indicate that credit quality is on the slide.
- But the stock slide has slashed the value of his original investment by two-thirds.
- Contributing to the current slide are some of the older more established technology and telecommunications names.
Synonyms
fall, decline, drop, slump, tumble, downturn, downswing
informal nosedive
4A part of a machine or instrument that slides.His dark hair fell into his eyes as he looked down the slide of his instrument, inspecting the dent that his fall had put in it the day before....
- At first he merely toyed with the instrument, running a slide up and down and picking out series of notes almost like scales.
- The slide is a smooth satin black, with almost all of its corners rounded.
4.1The place on a machine or instrument where a sliding part operates.The tooling is mounted on arms that are attached to slides, as well....
- It can also attach to tripod via a quick-release slide.
4.2 [mass noun] Slide guitar: I’d been playing slide for years...
- But the delivery sells it, and a song that opens with a descending chromatic wail and psychedelic wah-wah slide is just a bit much.
- With the bass player and second guitarist supplying harmony vocals, and some fine slide playing from aforesaid guitarist, these guys got the job done.
- Tinny acoustic plucks, triangle tinkles, and a later-arriving electric slide accent the point.
5A rectangular piece of glass on which an object is mounted or placed for examination under a microscope.The measurements are performed in vitro, with a DNA construction anchored between a glass microscope slide and a silica bead....
- Two Pt electrodes separated by 1.1 cm were attached to a glass microscope slide, and the space between the electrodes was filled with the cell suspension.
- The machine then applies a thin, even layer of cells to a microscope slide for examination.
5.1A mounted transparency, especially one placed in a projector for viewing on a screen: [as modifier]: a slide show...
- The easiest way is to print the image on a transparency slide (the ones normally used for an overhead projector) with a laser printer.
- Thus, in this room right now, we are converting electrical energy into light energy in the projector that is beaming images from my slides to the screen before you.
- Other drawings and photographs, projected as slides or mounted on easels, picked out details of the city, highlighting the jumble of old and new.
Synonyms
transparency, diapositive, mount
6British another term for hairslide. her hair was held back with a tortoiseshell slide...
- It was held in place in the hair by means of a slide or vertical hair pin.
- Top off the look with a belly skimming T-shirt or airy peasant blouse, flowing hippie hair, and a pair of beaded slides.
- I dug about for my straighteners and a new slide to separate my hair.
7A sandal or light shoe without a back.
Phrases
let something slide
on the slide
Derivatives
slidable
- The slidable positioning of the catheter units in relation to each other provides for variable inter-balloon distances, which in turn provides for a variably sized occlusion region in a hollow tubular organ, for example a vessel.
- The injection needle is longitudinally slidable within the tip section so that its distal end can extend beyond the distal end of the tip section upon suitable manipulation of the needle control handle.
- A planchette (a slidable 3-legged device) or pointer of some sort is manipulated by those using the board.
slidably
- An elongated rod member is slidably positioned in the journal bearing and has at the lower end thereof a locking element which is adapted to selectively co-act with either the journal bearing or the socket.
- The shaft clamp is slidably received by the indicator housing.
- In the unlocked position, the leaf spring is slidably and rotationally disposed along the elongated member.
Origin
Old English slīdan (verb); related to sled and sledge1. The noun, first in the sense 'act of sliding', is recorded from the late 16th century.
sledge from Old English:
The sledge that is a vehicle used on snow and ice came in the late 16th century from Dutch and is related to sled (Middle English), sleigh (early 18th century), slide (Old English), and slither (Middle English). Sleigh is from Dutch, and was originally adopted in North America. To take for a sleigh ride is a dated slang phrase meaning ‘to mislead’, from the use of sleigh ride for an implausible or false story or a hoax. A sleigh ride could also mean ‘a drug-induced high’—this went with the use of snow for cocaine in white powder form, an early 20th-century use for this Old English word. As a name for what we would now more usually call a sledgehammer, the other sledge is recorded in Old English and goes back to a root meaning ‘to strike’ and related to slay. A sledgehammer is a large, heavy hammer used for jobs such as breaking rocks and driving in fence posts, so to take a sledgehammer to crack a nut is to use a disproportionately forceful means to achieve a simple objective. The expression is recorded in the 1930s, but a decade earlier an American version use a sledgehammer to kill a gnat appears. In the 1970s Australian cricketers started sledging, or making offensive or needling remarks to opposing batsmen in an attempt to break their concentration. The idea behind the term is the crudity and lack of subtlety involved in using a sledge or sledgehammer.