I. ˈsləg noun
Etymology: Middle English slugge, of Scandinavian origin; akin to Norwegian dialect slugga to walk sluggishly
Date: 15th century
1. : sluggard
2. : a lump, disk, or cylinder of material (as plastic or metal): as
a.
(1) : a musket ball
(2) : bullet
b. : a piece of metal roughly shaped for subsequent processing
c. : a $50 gold piece
d. : a disk for insertion in a slot machine ; especially : one used illegally instead of a coin
3. : any of numerous chiefly terrestrial pulmonate gastropods (order Stylommatophora) that are found in most parts of the world where there is a reasonable supply of moisture and are closely related to the land snails but are long and wormlike and have only a rudimentary shell often buried in the mantle or entirely absent
4. : a smooth soft larva of a sawfly or moth that creeps like a mollusk
5.
a. : a quantity of liquor drunk in one swallow
b. : a detached mass of fluid (as water vapor or oil) that causes impact (as in a circulating system)
6.
a. : a strip of metal thicker than a printer's lead
b. : a line of type cast as one piece
c. : a usually temporary type line serving to instruct or identify
7. : the gravitational unit of mass in the foot-pound-second system to which a pound force can impart an acceleration of one foot per second per second and which is equal to the mass of an object weighing 32 pounds
[
slug 3
]
II. transitive verb
( slugged ; slug·ging )
Date: 1912
1. : to add a printer's slug to
2. : to drink in gulps — often used with down
III. noun
Etymology: perhaps from slug to load with slugs
Date: 1830
: a heavy blow especially with the fist
IV. transitive verb
( slugged ; slug·ging )
Date: circa 1861
1. : to strike heavily with or as if with the fist or a bat
2. : fight 4b — usually used in the phrase slug it out