slat

From Middle English slatte, sklatte, sklat, sclat, from Old French esclat (“piece broken or split off, shiver, splinter”), from Old French esclater (“to split, burst”), from Frankish *slaitijan (“to split, break”), from Proto-Germanic *slītaną (“to rend, split”). Doublet of slate and éclat.

• IPA^(key): /slæt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -æt

slat (plural slats)

1. A thin, narrow strip or bar of wood (lath), metal, or plastic.

   Synonyms: billet, flitch, spline

   slats of a window blind

   • 2014, Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Picador, →ISBN, page 208:

     To keep people out, the Nature Conservancy, which owns the cave, has blocked off the entrance with huge iron slats.

2. (aviation) A control surface that extends forwards and downwards from the leading edge of a wing, leaving a gap between it and the leading edge, in order to modify the airflow around the wing so as to allow flight at a higher angle of attack without stalling, lowering the aircraft's stall speed.
3. (skiing, slang) A ski.
   • 2005, Richard V. Shriver, Gold to Refine, page 31:

     I never got down that hill without losing at least one of my skis! Clarence didn't lose his slats. The straps went over his boots and held them in place. If he fell, he risked breaking a foot or leg, but the slats stayed on.

4. A thin piece of stone; a slate.
5. A drop (of rain or water), a splash.
   • 1907, Dixon Scott, Liverpool, page 36:

     […] slats of rain broke upon the surface.

   • 1937 04, Collier's:

     A slat of rain drove into his face. It was pitch dark but the sea was calmer and the bucking of the ship had lessened.

   • 1939, Richard Matthews Hallet, Michael Beam:

     […] a slat of rain. The River-Woman grasped the pouch with her left hand and touched the mouth of it with her right.

   • 1956, The Saturday Evening Post:

     […] a slat of rain and wind gusts which whitened the water where the river made its bend. Then the squall was gone as swiftly as it had come and the sun began to break through the clouds as Mike went slowly along the trail.

• slatback
• slatless

slat (third-person singular simple present slats, present participle slatting, simple past and past participle slatted)

1. To construct or provide with slats.
2. To slap or strike; to beat, pummel; to hurl or throw down violently.
   • c. 1603 (date written), Iohn Marston, The Malcontent, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for William Aspley, […], published 1604, →OCLC, Act IV, scene iii:

     Men[dozo]. How did you kill him? / Mal[evole]. Slatted his braines out, then ſowſt him in the brinie ſea. / Men. Braind him and drownd him too?

3. To throw (something, especially water or liquid) down; to slam or splash (something) down.
   • 1867, William Frederick Rock, Jim and Nell: A Dramatic Poem in the Dialect of North Devon, page 35:

     […] a nudge o' kissing-crust After thy leeky broth: I've warmed thy porridge on tha trivet, Jimmy, zay prayers avore 'e have it, And doant 'e slat tha clath.

   • 1921, Raymond McFarland, Sons of the Sea, page 147:

     […] slatting water over everything in the dory.

   • 1923 August 11, The Saturday Evening Post, page 88:

     […] by the sound she knew that he was slatting water from his oilskins. "Thanks. A wet day, sir." The door closed. He must have entered without invitation and shut the door behind him.

   • 1953, Rogers Terrill, The Argosy Book of Sea Stories, page 136:

     Mac stood over me, slatting water off his arms, his face purple.

   • 2011 October 1, William Hope Hodgson, The Collected Fiction of William Hope Hodgson: The Ghost Pirates & Other Revenants of The Sea, Start Publishing LLC, →ISBN:

     The hose came in hand over hand, as the sailormen say, and in a few moments the end came switching down on them, slatting water in all directions.

4. (of rain or other water) To fall; to beat (against something).
   • 1938, Outdoor Life:

     […] sending solid grey water slatting against her wheelhouse windows.

   • 1943 04, Collier's: Incorporating Features of the American Magazine:

     […] water slatting over the rail. The salt caked on her face and when the sun came up, it was as though her face was being pot-roasted - with salt.

   • 2003, Jean Lee Latham, Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 8:

     […] rain slatting down in the weed-grown garden.

   • 2008 September 30, Zoe Sharp, Second Shot: A Charlie Fox Mystery, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 31:

     […] rain slatting against the outside of the window.

5. (British, dialectal) To split; to crack.
   • 1609, Ammianus Marcellinus, translated by Philemon Holland, The Roman Historie, […], London: […] Adam Jslip, →OCLC:

     Both head-peeces and habergeons were slat and dashed a peeces.

6. To set on; to incite.

• Alts, LTAs, SALT, Salt, TLAs, alts, last, lats, salt

From Middle Irish slat, from Proto-Celtic *slattā (“stalk, staff”). Cognate with Welsh llath.

• (Munster) IPA^(key): /sˠl̪ˠɑt̪ˠ/^[1]
• (Aran) IPA^(key): /sˠlɑt̪ˠ/^[2]
• (Cois Fharraige) IPA^(key): /sˠl̪ˠat̪ˠ/, [sˠl̪ˠaːt̪ˠ]^[3]
• (Mayo, Ulster) IPA^(key): /sˠl̪ˠat̪ˠ/^[4][5]

slat f (genitive singular slaite, nominative plural slata or slatacha)

1. rod, stick

   Synonyms: bata, maide

2. cane, switch

   Synonym: cána

3. wand
4. (vulgar) dick, cock (penis)

   Synonym: bod

5. yard (unit of measure)

   Synonym: cleith

• Alternative strong plural form: slatacha

• slata Napier
• slat bhrataí (“jack-staff”)

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “slat”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN

slāt

1. first/third-person singular preterite of slītan

Hackstein relates this to Proto-Germanic *stelaną (“to steal”) and Albanian shtjell.^[1]

slat f

1. plunder
   • The Annals of Ulster from the Trinity College MS 1282, published in The Annals of Ulster (to A.D. 1131) (1983, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Seán Mac Airt & Gearóid Mac Niocaill, AD 825

     Slat Duin Lethglaisi du genntib.

     The plunder of Dún Lethglaise by the heathens.

• Middle Irish: slat
  • Irish: slad

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “2 slat”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

From Middle Irish slat, from Proto-Celtic *slattā (“stalk, staff”). Cognate with Welsh llath.

• IPA^(key): /sˠl̪ˠaht/

slat f (genitive singular slait or slaite, plural slatan)

1. stick, rod, twig, switch, wand
2. yard (unit of length)
3. (vulgar, slang, anatomy) penis

• iadh-shlat
• slat-tomhais

• mìle (“mile”)
• òirleach (“inch”)
• troigh (“foot”)