different between slump vs slither

English

Etymology

Probably of North Germanic origin: compare Danish slumpe (“to stumble upon by chance”), Norwegian slumpe (“happen by chance”), Swedish slumpa (“to sell off”). Compare also German schlumpen (“to trail; draggle; be sloppy”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sl?mp/
• Rhymes: -?mp

Verb

slump (third-person singular simple present slumps, present participle slumping, simple past and past participle slumped)

1. (intransitive) To collapse heavily or helplessly.

   • “Heavens!” exclaimed Nina, “the blue-stocking and the fogy!—and yours are pale blue, Eileen!—you’re about as self-conscious as Drina—slumping there with your hair tumbling à la Mérode! Oh, it's very picturesque, of course, but a straight spine and good grooming is better. […]”

2. (intransitive) To decline or fall off in activity or performance.
3. (intransitive) To slouch or droop.
4. (transitive) To lump; to throw together messily.

   • These different groups […] are exclusively slumped together under that sense.

5. To fall or sink suddenly through or in, when walking on a surface, as on thawing snow or ice, a bog, etc.
   • a. 1677, Isaac Barrow, The Danger and Mischief of Delaying Repentance (sermon)

     The latter walk on a bottomless quag, into which unawares they may slump.

6. (slang) (transitive) To cause to collapse; to hit hard; to render unsconscious; to kill.

Translations

Noun

slump (plural slumps)

1. A heavy or helpless collapse; a slouching or drooping posture; a period of poor activity or performance, especially an extended period.
   1. (slang by extension) A period when a person goes without the expected amount of sex or dating.
      • 2004, Jonathan Tolins, The Last Sunday in June

        TOM. We haven't had sex with each other in five months.

        MICHAEL. We're in a slump, I know that."

2. A measure of the fluidity of freshly mixed concrete, based on how much the concrete formed in a standard slump cone sags when the cone is removed.
3. (Britain, dialect) A boggy place.
4. (Scotland) The noise made by anything falling into a hole, or into a soft, miry place.
5. (Scotland) The gross amount; the mass; the lump.

Derived terms

• slumplike

Translations

Anagrams

• Plums, lumps, plums

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From the verb slumpa.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sl?mp/

Noun

slump m (definite singular slumpen, indefinite plural slumpar, definite plural slumpane)

1. random event, chance, happenstance

   Eg valde han ut på slump.

   I picked it randomly.

2. a good amount, quite a bit

   Eg vann ein god slump pengar i går.

   I won quite a bit of money yesterday.

Verb

slump

1. imperative of slumpa

Further reading

• “slump” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Spanish

Noun

slump m (plural slumps)

1. slump (decline)

Swedish

Pronunciation

Noun

slump c

1. chance, happenstance

Declension

Derived terms

• slumpartikel

Related terms

• slumpvariabel
• slumpa

English

Etymology

From Middle English slitheren, alteration of slideren (“to slither, creep”), from Old English slidrian (“to slip, slide, slither”), from Proto-West Germanic *slidr?n (“to slide, slither”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleyd?- (“to slip”), equivalent to slide +? -er (frequentative suffix). Cognate with Dutch slidderen (“to slip, wriggle, slither”), German schlittern (“to slither, skid”). More at slide.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?sl?ð.?(?)/
• Rhymes: -?ð?(r)

Verb

slither (third-person singular simple present slithers, present participle slithering, simple past and past participle slithered)

1. (intransitive) To move about smoothly and from side to side.
2. (intransitive) To slide
   • 2003, J. Flash, An American Savage

     I bent down and with both hands I scooped up as much of this pissshit as I could. The green and brown clump felt like Jello as it dripped down all over my clothes. It was slithering through inbetween my fingers.

Derived terms

• aslither
• slitherlink
• Slytherin

Related terms

Translations

Adjective

slither

1. (archaic) slithery; slippery

Noun

slither (uncountable)

1. A limestone rubble.
2. (nonstandard, see usage notes) A sliver.

Usage notes

The use of slither to mean sliver, which is prevalent especially in Britain (where th-fronting is becoming more and more prevalent), is considered by many to be an error, though at least one major dictionary merely labels it "informal" [1].

See also

• sliver

Anagrams

• Hirtles, Hitlers, Shitler, relisht