different between slew vs sley

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /slu?/
• (Wales, Northern England, some New England and Southern American dialects) IPA^(key): /sl?u/
• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /slju?/
• Rhymes: -u?

Etymology 1

In all senses, a mostly British spelling of slue.

Noun

slew (plural slews)

1. The act, or process of slewing.
2. A device used for slewing.
3. A change of position.

Translations

Verb

slew (third-person singular simple present slews, present participle slewing, simple past and past participle slewed)

1. (transitive, nautical) To rotate or turn something about its axis.
2. (transitive) To veer a vehicle.
3. (transitive) To insert extra ticks or skip some ticks of a clock to slowly correct its time.
4. (intransitive) To pivot.
5. (intransitive) To skid.
6. (transitive, rail transport) to move something (usually a railway line) sideways

   The single line was slewed onto the disused up formation to make way for the future redoubling.

7. (transitive, Britain, slang) To make a public mockery of someone through insult or wit.

Translations

Etymology 2

Compare slough.

Noun

slew (plural slews)

1. A wet place; a river inlet.
   • 1885, Theodore Roosevelt, Hunting Trips of a Ranchman

     The prairie round about is wet, at times almost marshy, especially at the borders of the great reedy slews.

Etymology 3

Ablaut of slay, from Middle English slew, sleugh, past of Middle English sleen.Replaced earlier Middle English slough, slogh, from Old English sl?g (past of Old English sl?an (“to hit, strike, slay”)), due to the influence of knew, drew, etc. More at slay.

Verb

slew

1. simple past tense of slay

See also

• slain

References

• slay, v.¹, in Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.

Etymology 4

Borrowed from Irish slua (“crowd”), from Old Irish slúag, slóg, from Proto-Celtic *slougos (“troop, army”), from Proto-Indo-European *slowg?os, *slowgos (“entourage”).

Noun

slew (plural slews)

1. (US) A large amount.

Translations

See also

• onslaught

References

• “slew”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.

Anagrams

• ESWL, lews, wels

English

Etymology

From Middle English slay, from Old English slege.

Noun

sley (plural sleys)

1. reed (of a loom)
2. A guideway in a knitting machine.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)

3. (weaving) The number of ends per inch in the cloth, provided each dent in the reed in which it was made contained an equal number of ends.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of E. Whitworth to this entry?)

Verb

sley (third-person singular simple present sleys, present participle sleying, simple past and past participle sleyed)

1. (transitive, weaving) To separate or part the threads of, and arrange them in a reed.

Related terms

• sleave
• sleid

Anagrams

• Slye, leys, lyes, lyse, sely, syle

Middle English

Adjective

sley

1. Alternative form of sly