Definition of "slash"

A slashing action or motion, particularly:

1. A swift, broad, cutting stroke made by an edged weapon or whip.  examples

2. (cricket) A wild swinging strike of the bat.  examples

3. (ice hockey, lacrosse) A hard swift lateral strike with a hockey or lacrosse stick, usually across another player's arms or legs.  examples

4. Any similar wide striking motion.  examples

5. (figuratively) A sharp reduction.  examples

A mark made by a slashing motion, particularly:

1. A cut or laceration, often deep, made by an edged weapon or whip.  examples

2. (botany) A deep taper-pointed incision in a plant.  examples

Something resembling such a mark, particularly:

1. (fashion) A slit in an outer garment exposing a lining or inner garment, usually of a contrasting color or design; any intentional long vertical cut in a garment.  examples

2. (US and Canada) A clearing in a forest, (particularly) those made by logging, fire, or other violent action.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • We passed over the shoulder of a ridge and around the edge of a fire slash, and then we had the mountain fairly before us.

     1895, Henry Van Dyke, Little Rivers: A Book of Essays in Profitable Idleness

3. (originally US, typography) The slash mark: the punctuation mark ⟨/⟩, sometimes (often proscribed) inclusive of any mark produced by a similar slashing movement of the pen, as the backslash ⟨\⟩.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Initial inquiries among professional typists uncover names like slant, slant line, slash, and slash mark. Examination of typing instruction manuals discloses additional names such as diagonal and diagonal mark, and other sources provide the designation oblique.

     1965, Dmitri A. Borgmann, Language on Vacation, page 240

4. (vulgar, slang) Female genitalia.

(US and Canada) The loose woody debris remaining from a slash, (particularly forestry) the trimmings left while preparing felled trees for removal.  examples

(fandom slang) Slash fiction.  quotations

To cut or attempt to cut, particularly:

1. To cut with a swift broad stroke of an edged weapon.  examples

2. To produce a similar wound with a savage strike of a whip.  examples

3. (ice hockey) To strike swiftly and laterally with a hockey stick, usually across another player's arms or legs.  examples

4. (figuratively) To reduce sharply.  examples

5. (fashion) To create slashes in a garment.  examples

6. (figuratively) To criticize cuttingly.  examples

To strike violently and randomly, particularly:

1. (cricket) To swing wildly at the ball.  examples

To move quickly and violently.  examples

To crack a whip with a slashing motion.  examples

(US, Canada) To clear land, (particularly forestry) with violent action such as logging or brushfires or (agriculture, uncommon) through grazing.  examples

(intransitive, fandom slang) To write slash fiction.

Used to note the sound or action of a slash.  examples

(Canada, US) Used to connect two or more identities in a list.  quotations  examples

(Canada, US) Used to list alternatives.  examples

(obsolete, rare) A drink of something; a draft.

(vulgar, UK, slang) A piss: an act of urination.

(vulgar, UK, slang, rare) Urine.

(UK, slang, intransitive) To piss, to urinate.  quotations

(US) A swampy area; a swamp.  examples

(Scotland) A large quantity of watery food such as broth.  examples

(Scotland, intransitive) To work in wet conditions.  examples

(UK) Alternative form of slatch: a deep trough of finely-fractured culm or a circular or elliptical pocket of coal.  examples