slab

• IPA^(key): /slæb/

• Audio (AU)

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• Rhymes: -æb

From Middle English sclabbe, slabbe, of uncertain origin; possibly from *slap, related to dialectal slappel (“portion, piece”), along with slape (“slippery”), sleip (“smooth piece of timber”), borrowed through Old Norse sleipr from Proto-Germanic *slaipaz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)leyb-. See also Norwegian sleip (“slippery”) and Icelandic sleipur.

slab (plural slabs)

1. A large, flat piece of solid material; a solid object that is large and flat.
   • 1859, John Lang, Botany Bay, or, True Tales of Early Australia, page 155,

     There were no windows in the inn. They were not required, since the interstices between the slabs suffered the wind, the rain, and the light of day to penetrate simultaneously.

   • 1913, Jack London, John Barleycorn, 2008, page 14,

     Then there was the Mexican who sold big slabs of chewing taffy for five cents each.

   • 2010, Ryan Humphreys, The Flirtations of Dan Harris, page 73,

     “The pier? You mean those few sodden logs tied together and that dingy slab of rough concrete.”

2. A paving stone; a flagstone.
3. (Australia) A carton containing 24 cans of beer.
   • 2001, Les Carlyon, Gallipoli, page 8,

     The Australians murder a few slabs of beer and the New Zealanders murder a few vowels.

   • 2008, Diem Vo, Family Life, Alice Pung (editor), page 156,

     However, unlike in Ramsay Street, there were never any cups of tea or bickies served. Instead, each family unit came armed with a slab of beer.

   • 2010, Holly Smith, Perth, Western Australia & the Outback, Hunter Publishing, unnumbered page,

     Common 375-ml cans are called tinnies, and can be bought in 24-can slabs for discounted prices.

   • 2009, Ross Fitzgerald, Trevor Jordan, Under the Influence: A History of Alcohol in Australia, 2011, unnumbered page,

     One essential part of the strategy for selling regionally identified beers beyond their borders was the selling of slabs — a package of four six-packs of stubbies or cans — for discounted prices interstate.

4. An outside piece taken from a log or timber when sawing it into boards, planks, etc.
5. A bird, the wryneck.
6. (nautical) The slack part of a sail.
7. (slang) A large, luxury pre-1980 General Motors vehicle, particularly a Buick, Oldsmobile or Cadillac.
8. (surfing) A very large wave.
   • 2009, Bruce Boal, The Surfing Yearbook, SurfersVillage, page 31,

     After being towed into a massive slab, Dorian dropped down the face and caught a rail, putting him in a near-impossible situation.

   • 2011, Douglas Booth, Surfing: The Ultimate Guide, page 95,

     In August 2000 he successfully rode a slab of unfathomable power at Teahupo′o.

9. (computing) A sequence of 12 adjacent bits, serving as a byte in some computers.
10. (geology) Part of a tectonic plate that is being subducted.
    • 2015, Dapeng Zhao, Multiscale Seismic Tomography, Springer, page 72,

      Being driven by the gravitational force, the subducting Pacific slab continues to sink down to the boundary between the upper and lower mantle...

• slabby
• slab hut
• slab on grade

slab (third-person singular simple present slabs, present participle slabbing, simple past and past participle slabbed)

1. (transitive) To make something into a slab.

Compare Goidelic and Irish slaib (“mud, mire left on a river strand”), and English slop (“puddle”).

slab (plural slabs)

1. (archaic) Mud, sludge.
   • 1664, John Evelyn, Sylva, Or A Discourse of Forest Trees, Volume 1,

     Some do also plant oziers in their eights, like quick-sets, thick, and (near the water) keep them not more than half a foot above ground; but then they must be diligently cleansed from moss, slab, and ouze, and frequently prun'd (especially the smaller spires) to form single shoots; […] .

• slabby

slab (comparative more slab, superlative most slab)

1. (archaic) Thick; viscous.
   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act IV, Scene 1,

     Make the gruel thick and slab:

Acronym of Slow, Loud And Bangin'.

slab (plural slabs)

1. (Southern US, slang) A car that has been modified with equipment such as loudspeakers, lights, special paint, hydraulics, and other accessories.
   • 2005, Chamillionaire (featuring Krayzie Bone), "Ridin'", The Sound of Revenge:

     Pull me over, try to check my slab

   • 2006, Trae (featuring Pimp C and Big Hawk), "Swang", Restless:

     I'mma swang, I'mma swing my slab lean to the left

   • 2012, Bobby Austin, By All Mean$, AuthorHouse (2012), →ISBN, page 56:

     All three of them recognized who the Lexus'^[sic] belonged to so he parked his slab and they cocked their guns.

This term been popularized through the southern rap genre of hip-hop, most notably by rappers such as Paul Wall, Chamillionaire, Lil' Keke, and others.

• slab in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

• B.L.A.S., BALs, BASL, LABs, Labs, albs, labs

• slabu

From a Slavic language, ultimately from Proto-Slavic *slabъ. Compare Daco-Romanian slab, Bulgarian and Macedonian слаб (slab), Serbo-Croatian slab.

slab m (feminine slabã, masculine plural slaghi, feminine plural slabi/slabe)

1. weak
2. lean, thin, skinny
3. bad, wicked, evil

• (bad): arãu

• (weak): vãrtos, cadãr, putut, ndrumin, silnãos
• (thin, lean): gras
• (bad): bun

• slãbintsã
• slãbushcu

• slãghescu

slab m

1. evil

• arãu, rãu

• slabã

• Audio

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slab f (plural slabben, diminutive slabbetje n)

1. (also very common in the diminutive) bib

English

slab m (invariable)

1. slab (of metal to be worked)

• bramma

From Slavic slabŭ, Proto-Slavic *slabъ. Compare Aromanian slab, Bulgarian and Macedonian слаб (slab), Serbo-Croatian slab.

• IPA^(key): [slab]

slab m or n (feminine singular slabă, masculine plural slabi, feminine and neuter plural slabe)

1. weak
2. thin, skinny

• (weak): puternic
• (thin): gras

• slăbănog
• slăbătură
• slăbi
• slăbiciune
• slăbire
• slăbit
• slăbuț

• subțire

From Proto-Slavic *slabъ.

• IPA^(key): /slâb/

slȁb (definite slȁbī, comparative slabiji, Cyrillic spelling сла̏б)

1. weak

From Proto-Slavic *slabъ.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsláp/
• Tonal orthography: slȁb

slàb (comparative slábši, superlative nàjslábši)

1. bad (not good)
2. weak

This adjective needs an inflection-table template.

• preslàb