From Middle English slore. Compare Old Norse slóðra (“to drag oneself along”). Cognate with Middle Low German sluren (“to trail in mud”). Related to dialect Norwegian sløra (“to be careless, to scamp, dawdle”), Danish sløre (“to wobble, be loose”) (especially for wheels).
slur (plural slurs)
- An insult or slight.
- a racial slur
- (music) A set of notes that are played legato, without separate articulation.
- (music) The symbol indicating a legato passage, written as an arc over the slurred notes (not to be confused with a tie).
- (obsolete) A trick or deception.
- In knitting machines, a device for depressing the sinkers successively by passing over them.
- To insult or slight.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Tennyson to this entry?)
- To run together; to articulate poorly.
- to slur syllables
- He slurs his speech when he is drunk.
- (music) To play legato or without separate articulation; to connect (notes) smoothly.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Busby to this entry?)
- To soil; to sully; to contaminate; to disgrace.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Cudworth to this entry?)
- To cover over; to disguise; to conceal; to pass over lightly or with little notice.
- With periods, points, and tropes, he slurs his crimes.
- To cheat, as by sliding a die; to trick.
- to slur men of what they fought for
- (printing, dated) To blur or double, as an impression from type; to mackle.