slip 
At last I arrived at a kind of embankment, where I 
could see the great mud-colored stream dipping along In 
the soundless darkness. 
H. James, Jr., Little Tour, p. 192. 
2. To slide suddenly and unawares in such a 
way as to threaten or result in a fall ; make a 
misstep; lose one's footing: as, to xlip on the 
ice. 
If he should dip, he sees his grave gaping under him. 
Smith. 
3. To fall into error or fault; err or go astray, 
as in speech or conduct. 
There is one that slippeth in his speech, but not from 
his heart. EccluB. nix. 16. 
If he had been as you, and you as he, 
You would have dipt like him. 
Shak., M. for M., ii. 2. 66. 
And how can I but often slip, that make a perambula- 
tion ouer the World 1 Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 50. 
4. To become slack or loose and move or start 
out of place, as from a socket or the like. 
The head elippeth from the helve. Deut. xlx. 5. 
Upon the least walking on it, the bone slips out again. 
Wiseman, Surgery. 
5. To pass quietly, imperceptibly, or elusively ; 
hence, to slink; sneak; steal : with in, out, or 
away : as, the time slips away ; errors are sure 
to slip in ; he slipped out of the room. 
I slip by his name, for most men do know it. 
B. Jonson, Poetaster, v. 1. 
Unexpected accidents dip in, and unthought of occur- 
rences intervene. Sir T. Browne, Religio Medici, I. 17. 
I slipt out and ran hither to avoid them. 
Sheridan, School for Scandal, 1. 1. 
Did Adam have duns, and slip down a back-lane? 
Lowell, In the Half- Way House. 
6. To escape insensibly, especially from the 
memory; be lost. 
Use the most proper methods to retain that treasure 
of ideas which you have acquired ; for the mind is ready 
to let many of them slip. Watts, Logic, 1. 5. 
7. To go loose or free ; be freed from check or 
restraint, as a hound from the leash. 
Cry "Havoc," and let slip the dogs of war. 
Shot., J. ., 111. 1. 273. 
8. To pass unregarded or unappropriated : with 
let: as, to let an opportunity sKp; to let the mat- 
ter slip. 
I, like an idle truant, fond of play, 
Doting on toys, and throwing gems away. 
Grasping at shadows, let the substance slip. 
Churchill, Sermons, Ded., 1. 157. 
Let not slip the occasion, but do something to lift off 
the curse incurred by Eve. 
Margaret Fuller, Woman in 18th Century, p. 167. 
9. To detach a ship from her anchor by slipping 
or letting go the chain at a shackle, because 
there is not time to heave the anchor up. A 
buoy is fastened to the part of the chain slipped, 
so that it may be recovered. 
The gale for which we slipped at Santa Barbara had 
been so bad a one here that the whole bay . . . was filled 
with the foam of the breakers. The Lagoda . . . slipped 
at the first alarm, and in such haste that she was obliged 
to leave her launch behind her at anchor. 
R. H. Dana, Jr., Before the Mast, p. 121. 
10. To have a miscarriage. [Colloq.] To slip 
Off, to depart or get away quietly, or so as to escape ob- 
servation. TO Blip up, to err inadvertently ; make a mis- 
take. IColloq.) 
Slip up in my vernacular ! How could I? I talked it 
when I was a boy with the other boys. 
The Century, XXXVI. 279. 
= ton. 1 and 2. Glide, etc. See slide. 
II. trans. 1. To put or place secretly, gently, 
or so as not to be observed. 
He had tried to slip in a powder into her drink. 
Arbulhnot, App. to John Bull, i. 
All this while Valentine's Day kept courting pretty 
May, who sate next him, slipping amorous billets doux 
under the table. Lamb, New Year's Coming of Age. 
2. To pass over or omit ; pass without appro- 
priating, using, or the like ; hence, to let slip ; 
allow to escape ; lose by oversight or inatten- 
tion. 
Slip no advantage 
That may secure you. B. Jonson, Catiline, iii. 3. 
Let us not slip the occasion, whether scorn 
Or satiate fury yield it from our foe. 
Milton, P. L, i. 178. 
I have never slipped giving them warning. 
Swift, Journal to Stella, xxxvi. 
3. To let loose ; release from restraint : as, to 
slip the hounds. 
Lucentio slipp'd me like his greyhound. 
Shak., T. of the 8., v. 2. 52. 
No surer than our falcon yesterday, 
Who lost the hern we slipt him at, and went 
To all the winds. Tennyson, Lancelot and Elaine. 
4. Naiit., to let go entirely : as, to glip a cable 
or an anchor. 
5698 
Pray'r is the cable, at whose end appears 
The anchor Hope, ne'er slipp'd but in our fears. 
(Juarles, Emblems, iii. 11. 
5. To throw off, or disengage one's self from. 
My horse slipped his bridle, and ran away. Swift. 
6. To drop or bring forth prematurely : said of 
beasts : as, the brown mare has slipped her foal. 
7. To make slips of for planting ; cut slips 
from. 
The branches also may be slipped and planted. 
Mortimer, Husbandry. 
To slip Off, to take off noiselessly or hastily: as, to slip 
of one's shoes or garments. To slip on, to put on loosely 
or in haste : as, to slip on a gown or coat. To slip one's 
breath or wind, to die. [Slang. ] 
And for their cits that happed to dip their breath, 
Old maids, so sweet, might mourn themselves to death. 
Woleot (P. Pindar). (Danes.) 
" You give him the right stuff, doctor," said Hawes Jo- 
cosely, "and he won't ilip his wind this time." The sur- 
geon acquiesced. C. Reade, Never too Late, x. 
To slip the cable. See cable. To slip the collar. 
See cottar. To Slip the girths. See gtrth.to slip 
the leash, to disengage one's self from a leash or noose, 
as a dog in the chase ; hence, to free one's self from re- 
straining influences. 
The time had not yet come when they were to slip the 
leash and spring upon their miserable victims. Prescott. 
slip 1 (slip), 11. [< ME. slip, slyp, a garment (= 
MIX MLG. slippe, a garment), slippe (= OHG. 
aliph, slip/, MHG. slif, slipf), a descent: see 
slip 1 , v. Cf. slop 1 . The noun uses are very nu- 
merous, mostly from the mod. verb.] 1. The 
act of slipping ; a sudden sliding or slipping of 
the feet, as in walking on ice or any slippery 
place. 
Not like the piebald miscellany, man, 
Bursts of great heart and slips in sensual mire, 
But whole and one. Tennyson, Princess, v. 
2. An unintentional fault ; an error or mistake 
inadvertently made ; a blunder : as, a slip of the 
pen or of the tongue. See lapsus. 
A very easy slip I have made, in putting one seemingly 
indifferent word for another. Locke. 
At which slip of the tongue the pious Juan hastily 
crossed himself. Mrs. H. Jackson, Ramona, i. 
3. A venial transgression; an indiscretion; a 
backsliding. 
Such wanton, wild, and usual slips 
As are ... most known 
To youth and liberty. Shak., Hamlet, ii. 1. 22. 
Numberless slips and failings in their duty which they 
may be otherwise guilty of. Bp. Atterbury, Sermons, I. ii. 
4. In geol., a small fault or dislocation of the 
rocks ; a narrow fissure, filled with flucan, and 
not exhibiting much vertical shifting. 5. In 
marine engin., same as drag, 8. 6. Amount of 
space available for slipping; also, amount or 
extent of slip made. 
The Slide Valves have a certain amount of slip, the 
Pumps follow each other, and, while one pauses at the 
end of the stroke, the other runs on. 
The Engineer, LXIX., p. vll. of advt's. 
7. In metal., the subsidence of a scaffold in a 
blast-furnace. See scaffold, n., 7. 8. A thing 
easily slipped off or on. (a) The frock or outer gar- 
ment of a young child. (6) The petticoat worn next under 
the dress, (c) An underskirt of colored material worn with 
a semi-transparent outer dress, and showing through it. 
(d) A loose covering or case : as, a pillow-dKp. 
9. A leash or noose by which a dog is held : so 
called from its being so made as to slip or fall 
loose by relaxing the hold. 
Me thinketh you had rather be held in a slippe then let 
slippe, where-in you resemble the graye-hounde. 
Lyly, Euphues and his England, p. 420. 
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, 
Straining upon the start. Shak., Hen. V., ill. 1. 31. 
Their dogs they let go out of slips in pursuit of the 
Wolfe, the Stag, the Bore, the Leopard, &c. 
Sandys, Travallea, p. 60. 
10. A wrought-iron cylindrical case in which 
the wood used in the manufacture of gunpow- 
der is distilled. 
The wood [for charcoal] is packed In iron cylindrical 
cases termed slips, which are then inserted in the "cylin- 
ders " or retorts. Eneyc. Brit., XI. 323. 
1 1 . Potters' clay or paste reduced to a semi- 
fluid condition about the consistence of cream. 
This is used sometimes to coat the whole body of an earth- 
enware vessel, and sometimes to impart a rude decoration 
by trickling it slowly from a spout, so as to form lines and 
patterns in slight relief. Also called slop and barbotine. 
12. Matter found in the trough of a grindstone 
after the grinding of edge-tools. [Local.] 13t. 
A counterfeit coin made of brass masked with 
silver. 
Therefore he went and got him certain slips (which are 
counterfeit peeces of mony, being brasse, and covered over 
with silver, which the common people call slips). 
Greene, Thieves Falling Out (Harl. Misc., VIII. 39B). 
slip-along 
First weigh a friend, then touch and try him too : 
For there are many slips and counterfeits. 
B. Joiison, Underwoods, Ixiv. 
14. An inclined plane on which a vessel is sup- 
ported while building, or on which she is hauled 
up for repair; also, a contrivance for hauling 
vessels out of the water for repairs, etc. One 
form of slip consists of a carriage or cradle with truck- 
wheels which run upon rails on an inclined plane. The ship 
is placed on the carriage while in the water, and the car- 
riage together with the ship is drawn up the inclined plane 
by means of machinery. 
15. A narrow passage, (a) A narrow passage between 
two buildings. [Prov. Eng.] (b) In hort., the space be- 
tween the walls of a garden and the outer fence. 
The spaces between the walls and the outer fence are 
called slips. A considerable extent is sometimes thus en- 
closed, and utilized for the growth of such vegetables as 
potatoes, winter greens, and sea-ltale, for the small bush 
fruits, and for strawberries. Encyc. Brit., XII. 219. 
16. A space between two wharves, or in a dock, 
in which a vessel lies. [U. 8.] 17. A long 
seat or narrow pew in a church, often without 
a door. [IT. 8.] 18. A narrow, pew-like com- 
partment in a restaurant or oyster-house, hav- 
ing one or two fixed seats and a table. 19. A 
long, narrow, and more or less rectangular 
piece ; a strip : as, a slip of paper. 
Such [boats] as were brused they tyed fast with theyr 
gyrdels, with slippes of the barkes of trees, and with tough 
and longe stalkes of certein herbes of the sea. 
Peter Martyr (tr. in Eden's First Books on America, 
[ed. Arber, p. 140). 
A small hereditary farm, 
An unproductive flip of rugged ground. 
Wordsworth, Excursion, i. 
20. A strip of wood or other material; spe- 
cifically, such a strip inserted in a dovetailed 
groove, or otherwise attached to a piece of 
wood or metal, to form a slipping or wearing 
surf ace for a sliding part. 21. A detachable 
straight or tapered piece which may be slipped 
in between parts to separate them or to fill a 
space left between them. 22. In insurance, a 
note of the contract made out before the policy 
is effected, for the purpose of asking the consent 
of underwriters to the proposed policy, it is 
merely a jotting or short memorandum of the terms, to 
which the underwriters subscribe their initials, with the 
sums for which they are willing to engage. It has no force 
as a contract of insurance, unless intentionally adopted as 
such. 
23. A particular quantity of yarn. 24. A 
twig detached from the main stock, especially 
for planting or grafting ; a scion ; a cutting : as, 
a slip of a vine : often used figuratively. 
A goodly youth of amiable grace, 
Yet but a slender glip that scarse did see 
Yet seventeene yeares. Spenser, F. Q.,VI. it 5. 
Noble stock 
Was graft with crab-tree slip. 
Shak., 2 Hen. VI., iii. 2. 214. 
Scallger also afflrmeth that the Massalians . . . were 
first a lewish sect, and a dip of the Essees. 
Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 149. 
Here are two choice slips from that noble Irish oak 
which has more than once supplied alpeens for this meek 
and unoffending skull. 
Thackeray, Roundabout Papers, Thorns in the Cushion. 
All that Shakespeare says of the king yonder slip of a 
boy that reads in the corner feels to be true of himself. 
Emerson, History. 
25. In printing, the long and narrow proof 
taken from a slip-galley of type before it is 
made up into pages or columns. 26. pi. In 
bookbinding, the pieces of twine that project 
from the back of a sewed but uncovered book, 
and can be slipped up or down. 27. In cricket, 
one of the fielders, who stands at some distance 
behind and to the right of the wicket-keeper. 
See diagram under cricket'*. 
" I'm your man," said he. " Wicket-keeper, cover-point, 
slip, or long-stop ; you bowl the twisters, 111 do the field- 
ing for you." Whyte Melville, White Kose, II. xiii. 
28. A device for the ready detachment of any- 
thing on shipboard that is secured by a lashing, 
in case it becomes necessary to let it go quickly. 
29. In upholstery, a hem forming a sort of tube 
to allow of the insertion of a wire, or the like, 
for stiffening. 30. A block of whale's blubber 
as cutorstripped from the animal. 31. A mis- 
carriage or abortion. [Colloq.] Oilstone-slips. 
See oilstone. Opal-glass Blip. See opal. Orange-slip 
Clay. See orange*. Slip-clutch .coupling. See coupling. 
To give one the slip. Seejricei. 
slip 2 (slip), n. [< ME. slyp, xti/pi; xlf/pp (= MLG. 
slip), slime: see slip 1 , r. (#).] 1. Viscous mat- 
ter; slime. Prompt, Parv. 2. A dish of curds 
made with rennet wine. 
slip 3 (slip), H. [A particular use of slip 1 (?).] A 
young sole. [Prov. Eng.] 
siip-alongt(slip'a-16ng*),rt. Slipshod. Da rim. 
It would be less worth while to read Fox's slip-along 
stories. Maitland, Reformation, p. 559. 
