slander 
Thei sellen Beneflces of Holy Chirche. And so don Men 
in othere Places. Ood amende it, whan his Wille is. And 
that is gret Sclaundre. .Vaudeville, Travels, p. 19. 
Thou slander of thy mother's heavy womb ! 
Thou loathed issue of thy father's loins ! 
Shot., Rich. III., i. 3. 231. 
3f. Ill fame ; bad name or repute. 
The sclaundre of Walter ofte and wyde spradde. 
Chaucer, Clerk's Tale, 1. 660. 
You shall not find me, daughter, 
After the slander of most stepmothers, 
Evil-eyed unto you. Shak., Cymbeline, i. 1. 71. 
4. A false tale or report maliciously uttered, 
and intended or tending to injure the good 
name and reputation of another: as, a wicked 
and spiteful slander; specifically, in law, oral 
defamation published without legal excuse 
( Cooley). Defamation if not oral is termed libel. Asper- 
sions spoken only to the subject of them are not in law 
deemed slander, because not injurious to reputation ; but 
when spoken in the hearing of a third person they are 
deemed published. Slander is a tort only to be proceeded 
for in a civil action, while libel is also punishable crimi- 
nally. 
To bakbyten and to bosten, and here fals witnesse ; 
To scornie and to scolde, sclaundres to make. 
Piers Plan-man (C), iii. 86. 
Slander consists in falsely and maliciously charging an- 
other with the commission of some public offense, crimi- 
nal in itself, and indictable, and subjecting the party to 
an infamous punishment, or involving moral turpitude, 
or the breach of some public trust, or with any matter in 
relation to his particular trade or vocation, which, if true, 
would render him unworthy of employment, or, lastly, 
with any other matter or thing by which special injury is 
sustained. Kent. 
Quick-circulating slanders mirth afford 
And reputation bleeds in ev'ry word. 
Churchill, The Apology, 1. 47. 
5. The fabrication or uttering of such false re- 
ports ; aspersion ; defamation ; detraction : as, 
to be given to slander. 
The worthiest people are the most injured by slander 
Slander (slan'der), v. t. [Early mod. E. also 
slaunder, sclaunder; < ME. slaunderen, sclaun- 
deren, sclaundren, sclaindren, skaunderen, < OF. 
esclandrer, esclandrir, escandrer, offend, dis- 
grace, < esclandre, escandre, offense, scandal: 
see slander, n. Cf. scandal, v.] If. To be a 
stumbling-block to ; give offense to ; offend. 
And who euere sch&lsclaundre oon of thes litle bileuynge 
in me, it is good to him that a mylne stoon of assis were 
don aboute his necke, and were sent in to the see. 
Wyclij, Mark ix. 41. 
2t. To discredit ; disgrace ; dishonor. 
Tax not so bad a voice 
To slander music any more than once. 
Shak., Much Ado, ii. 3. 47. 
3. To speak ill of ; defame; calumniate; dis- 
parage. 
When one is euill, he doth desire that all be euill ; if he 
be sclaundered, that all be defamed. 
Guevara, Letters (tr. by Hellowes, 1577), p. 95. 
The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander, 
Out-sweeten'd not thy breath. 
Shak., Cymbeline, iv. 2. 223. 
Specifically 4. In law, to utter false and in- 
jurious tales or reports regarding; injure or 
tarnish the good name and reputation of, by 
false tales maliciously told or propagated. 
See slander, n., 4, and compare libel. 5. To re- 
proach ; charge : with with. 
To slander Valentine 
With falsehood, cowardice, and poor descent. 
Shak., T. G. of V., iii. 2. 31. 
= Syn. 4. Defame, Calumniate, etc. See asperse. 
Slanderer (slau'der-er), n. [< ME. sklaunderer; 
< slander, v., + -cri.] One who slanders; a ca- 
by maliciously uttering something to the injury 
of his good name. 
The domes salle than be redy 
Tille the sMaunderers of God alle myghty. 
Hampole, Pricke of Conscience, I. 7042. 
Railers or slanderers, tell-tales, or sowers of dissension. 
Jer. Taylor. 
slanderfullyt (slan'der-ful-i), adv. [< "slander- 
ful (< slander + -ful) + -/y 2 .] Slanderously ; 
calumniously. 
He had at all times, before the judges of his cause used 
himself unrevereutly to the King's Majesty, and slander- 
fully towards his council. 
Council Book, quoted in Strype's Cranmer, I. 822. 
slanderous (slan'der-us), a. [< OF. esclan- 
dreiix, < esclandre, slander: see slander. Cf. 
scandalous, a.'] If. Scandalous ; ignominious ; 
disgraceful; shameful. 
The vile and slanderous death of the cross. 
Book of Homilies (1573). 
t'gly and slandermts to thy mother's womb, 
Full of unpleasing blots and sightless stains. 
Shak., K. John, iii. 1. 44. 
5683 
2. Containing slander or defamation; ca- 
lumnious; defamatory: as, slaii'li-rixix words, 
speeches, or reports. 
He hath stirred up the people to persecute it with ex- 
probations and slanderous words. 
Lalimer, 6th Sermon bef. Edw. VI., 1549. 
As by flattery a man opens his bosom to his mortal 
enemy, so by detraction and a slanderous misreport he 
shuts the same to his best friends. South. 
3. Given to slander; uttering defamatory words 
or tales. 
Done to death by slanderous tongues 
Was the Hero that here lies. 
Shak., Much Ado, v. 3. 3. 
slanderously (slan'der-us-li), adv. In a slan- 
derous manner; with slander; calumniously; 
with false and malicious report. Rom. iii. 8. 
Slanderousness (slan'der-us-nes), n. Slander- 
ous or defamatory character or quality, 
slanet (slan), n. [< Ir. sleaghan, a turf-spade, 
dim. of sleagh, a spear, pike, lance. Cf. slade 3 .] 
A spade for cutting turf or digging trenches. 
Dig your trench with slanes. 
Ellis, Modern Husbandman (1750), IV. ii. 40. (Davies.) 
Unfortunately, in cutting the turf where this was found, 
the slane or spade struck the middle ; it only, however, 
bruised it. Cot. Valiancy, quoted in Archsologia, VII. 167. 
slang 1 (slang). An obsolete or archaic preterit 
of slingl. 
slang 2 (slang), n. [Origin obscure; perhaps, 
like slanket, connected with slank, slim, and ult. 
with sling 1 .] A narrow piece of land. Also 
slanket. Halliwell. 
There runneth forth into the sea a certain shelf e or slang, 
like unto an out-thrust tongue, such as Englishmen in old 
time termed a File. 
Holland, tr. of Camden, p. 715. (Danes.) 
Eventually, though very beat, he struggled across a 
couple of grass fields into the slang adjoining Brown's 
Wood. The Field, April 4, 1885. (Encyc. Diet.) 
slang 3 (slang), n. [Of obscure cant origin ; the 
form suggests a connection with sling, in a way 
indicated by the use of sling and fling in ' to 
sling epithets,' 'to fling reproaches,' etc., and 
by similar uses of related Scand. forms, as 
Norw. sleng, a slinging, a device, a burden of 
a song; slengja, sling (slengja kjeften, abuse, 
lit. 'sling the jaw'); slengjenamn, a nickname; 
slengje-ord, an insulting word or allusion ; Icel. 
slyngr, slyngum, cunning : see sling*. The noun, 
in this view, must have arisen in quasi-com- 
position (slang-patter, slang-word, sZangr-name, 
etc.), or else from the verb. Evidence of early 
use is lacking. The word has nothing to do with 
language or lingo, and there is no evidence to es- 
tablish a Gipsy origin.] 1. The cant words or 
jargon used by thieves, peddlers, beggars, and 
the vagabond classes generally; cant. 
Slang in the sense of the cant language of thieves ap- 
pears in print certainly as early as the middle of the last 
century. It was included by Grose in his "Dictionary of 
the Vulgar Tongue," published in 1786. But it was many 
years before it was allowed a place in any vocabulary of 
our speech that confined itself to the language of good 
speakers and writers. Its absence from such works would 
not necessarily imply that it had not been in frequent use. 
Still, that this never had been the case we have direct evi- 
dence. Scott, in his novel of "Redgauntlet," which ap- 
peared in 1824, when using the word, felt the necessity of 
slang-whanger 
certain professions, occupations, and classes of society, 
such as racing slang, college slang, club slang, literary 
slang, political slang, (see cants.) slang enters more or 
less into all colloquial speech and into inferior popular 
literature, as novels, newspapers, political addresses, and 
is apt to break out even in more serious writings. Slang 
as such is not necessarily vulgar or ungrammatical ; in- 
deed, it is generally correct in idiomatic form, and though 
frequently censured on this ground, it often, in fact, owes 
its doubtful character to other causes. Slang is often 
used adjectively : as, a slang expression. See the quota- 
tions below. 
The smallest urchin whose tongue could tang 
Shock'd the dame with a volley of slang. 
Hood, Tale of a Trumpet. 
Cant, as used in the phrases "thieves' cant, " "tinkers' 
cant," " printers' cant," or the cant of any craft or calling, 
is really a language within a language, and is intended to 
conceal the thoughts of those who utter it from the un- 
initiated. Slang, on the other hand, is open to all the 
world to use, and its ranks are recruited in various ways 
JV. and Q., 7th ser., VIII. 341. 
Center slang, thieves' slang in which the middle vowel 
of a word is taken as its initial letter, and other letters 
or syllables are added to give the word a finish, as lock 
becomes "ockler," pitch, "itchper," etc. KMon-Turner, 
Vagrants and Vagrancy, p. 478. Riming slang, a kind 
of cant or secret slang spoken by street vagabonds in Lon- 
don, consisting of the substitution of words or sentences 
which rime with other words or sentences intended to be 
kept secret: as, "apples and pears" tor stairs; "Cain and 
Abel" for a table. See back-slang. =Syn. 2. Slang, Col- 
loquialism, etc. See cants. 
slang 3 (slang), v. [< slangS, n.] I. intrant. To 
use slang; employ vulgar or vituperative lan- 
guage. 
To slang with the fishwives. 
Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III. 350. 
II. trans. To address slang or abuse to ; be- 
rate or assail with vituperative or abusive lan- 
guage; abuse; scold. 
Every gentleman abused by a cabman or slanged by a 
bargee was bound there and then to take off his coat and 
challenge him to fisticuffs. The Spectator. 
As the game went on and he lost, and had to pay, . . . 
he dropped his amiability, slanged his partner, declared 
he wouldn't play any more, and went away in a fury. 
H. James, Jr., Little Tour, p. 89. 
These drones are posted separately, as "not worthy to 
be classed," and privately slanged afterwards by the Mas- 
ters and Seniors. C. A. Bristed, English University, p. 100. 
slang* (slang), n. [Origin obscure and various ; 
cf. slangt, slangs.] 1. Among London coster- 
mongers, a counterfeit weight or measure. 
Some of the street weights, a good many of them, are 
slangs, but I believe they are as honest as many of the 
shop-keepers' after all. 
Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, II. 104. 
2. Among showmen : (a) A performance. (6) 
A traveling booth or show. Mayliew. 3. A 
hawker's license: as, to be out on the slang 
(that is, to travel with a hawker's license). 
[Thieves' slang.] 
Slang 5 (slang), n. [Cf. slangS, slang*.] 1. A 
watch-chain. [Thieves' slang.] 2. pi. Leg- 
irons or fetters worn by convicts. The slangs con- 
sist of a chain weighing from seven to eight pounds and 
about three feet long, attached to ankle-basils riveted on 
the leg, the slack being suspended from a leather waist- 
band: hence the name. 
slangily (slang'i-li), adv. [< slangy + -lyt.~] In 
slang or slangy usage; by users of slang; ir- 
reverently. 
part at all from its original sense. In the thirteenth chap- 
tr of that work, one of the characters is represented as 
the use of cant words and the thieves' Latin called slang 
that, even when he caught the words, he found himself as 
far as ever from the sense of their conversation." No one 
who is now accustomed either to speak slang [in def. 2J, or 
to speak of the users of it, would think of connecting it 
it is clear from this one quotation that the complete 
change of meaning which the term has undergone has 
taken place within a good deal less than sixty years. 
The Nation, Oct. 9, 1890, p. 289. 
Let proper nurses be assigned, to take care of these 
babes of grace [young thieves). . . . The master who teaches 
them should be a man well versed in the cant language 
commonly called the slang patter, in which they should by 
all means excel. 
Jonathan Wild's Advice to his Successor (175S). (Hotten.) 
2. In present use, colloquial words and phrases 
which have originated in the cant or rude speech 
of the vagabond or unlettered classes, or, be- 
.-._- . _, 1886. 
slanginess (slang'i-nes), n. [< slangy + -ness.~\ 
Slangy character or quality : as, the slanginess 
of one's speech. 
Their speech has less pertness, flippancy, and slanginess. 
Athenaum, No. 3288, p. 582. 
slangrillt, . [Origin obscure ; cf . slang* and 
gangrel.'] A lout; a fellow: a term of abuse. 
The third was a long, leane, olde, slavering slangrill, 
with a Brasill staffe in the one hand, and a whipcord in 
the other. 
Greene, Quip for an Upstart Courtier. (Davies.) 
slangular (slang'gu-lar), a. [< slangs + -ular; 
formed after angular,"etc.~\ Having the nature 
or character of slang ; slangy. [Humorous.] 
Little Swills is treated on several hands. Being asked 
start." 
quired or have had given them restricted, capri- 
cious, or extravagantly metaphorical meanings, 
and are regarded as vulgar or inelegant. Ex- 
amples of slang are rum for 'queer,' gay for 'dissolute,' 
corned, tight, slued, etc., for 'intoxicated,' awfully for 'ex- 
ceedingly,' jolly for 'surprising, uncommon,' .'/"/*// for 
something or somebody that is charming or admirable, 
kick the bucket or hop the twig for 'die,' etc. This collo- 
quial slang also contains many words derived from thieves' 
cant, such as pal for 'partner, companion,' cove for 'fel- 
low,' and ticker for 'watch.' There is a slang attached to 
Dickens, Bleak House xi 
i - 7 --j -3 slangy or abusive 
language; talk in a noisy, abusive, or railing 
way. [Colloq.] 
With tropes from Billingsgate's slang-whanging Tartars. 
Hood, Ode to Rae Wilson. 
Slang-whanger (slang'hwang"er), n. A scurril- 
ous, noisy, or railing person ; a noisy, abusive, 
or long-winded talker. [Colloq.] 
It embraces alike all manner of concerns, from the or- 
ganisation of a divan ... to the appointment of a con- 
