SLOPE


Meaning of SLOPE in English

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

Webster's New International English Dictionary.      Новый международный словарь английского языка Webster.