I. ˈslōp adverb
Etymology: Middle English
archaic : in a sloping manner : aslant , obliquely
II. adjective
: slanting, sloping
stagger on the slope decks — Alfred Tennyson
— often used in combination
slope -edged
slope -sided
III. verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
intransitive verb
1. : to move in or take an oblique direction : advance in or form a slanting line or course
wide golden fans of light sloped down the canyons — Katharine N. Burt
2. : to incline from the horizontal or vertical : lie or fall in a slanting plane
the bank sloped gently down to the water's edge — W.F.Davis
3. : go , travel , walk
renounces her position and her inheritance, and slopes off into the night — Wolcott Gibbs
pack and slope out for cow country — C.T.Jackson
eight dusty, hungry men sloped into the farm kitchen — Ronald Duncan
transitive verb
1.
a. : to cause to incline or slant : give a slanting position or direction to : bend
the most obvious method of fitting a pattern to the body is to slope or curve seam lines along body curves — Evelyn A. Mansfield
b. : to carry or place (a weapon) in a sloping position
2. : to form or make with a slanting shape or surface
the same man will slope his margin at one time to the right, at another time to the left — Stephen Paget
IV. noun
( -s )
1.
a. : ground whose surface forms an angle with the plane of the horizon : a natural or artificial incline (as a hillside or terrace) : acclivity , declivity
steep submarine slopes and steep-sided submarine canyons — F.P.Shepard
b. : a course on an open hillside prepared and graded for skiing — called also trail
2. : upward or downward slant or inclination : degree or extent of deviation from the horizontal or perpendicular
the mountains reach 15,000 feet or higher, the average slope of the flanking ranges being 60 degrees — Francis Kingdon-Ward
3. : the part of a continent descending toward and draining to a particular ocean
the Pacific slope
4. : slant 2
5.
a. : the trigonometric tangent of the angle made by a straight line with the x-axis
b. : the derivative of a dependent variable y with respect to the independent variable x
6. : an inclined mine shaft ; especially : the main incline in a colliery
V. noun
: the slope of the line tangent to a plane curve at a point