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slag.

Waste material from a mine.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈslæɡ/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈslaɡ/British, Northern-England, Scotland, Southern, Standard, Wales/ˈslæ(ː)ɡ/Australia/ˈslɛɡ/New-Zealand

  1. Waste material from a mine.

    countable · uncountable

  2. Scum that forms on the surface of molten metal.

    countable · uncountable

  3. Impurities formed and separated out when a metal is smelted from ore; vitrified cinders.

    countable · uncountable

  4. Hard aggregate remaining as a residue from blast furnaces, sometimes used as a surfacing material.

    countable · uncountable

  5. Scoria associated with a volcano.

    countable · uncountable

  6. A prostitute or promiscuous woman; a slut.

    Australia · Ireland · UK · countable · derogatory · slang · uncountable

  7. A coward.

    Ireland · UK · countable · dated · derogatory · uncountable

  8. A contemptible person, a scumbag.

    Cockney · Ireland · UK · countable · derogatory · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Middle Low German slagge, slaggen (“slag, dross”), from Old Saxon *slaggo, from Proto-West Germanic *slaggō, from Proto-Germanic *slaggô, from Proto-Germanic *slagōną (“to strike”) + *-gô (diminutive suffix). Compare Middle Low German slāgen (“to strike”), since originally the splinters struck off from the metal by hammering, from *slagōn, from Proto-West Germanic *slagōn. Compare also Old Saxon slegi, from Proto-West Germanic *slagi. See also Dutch slak, German Schlacke, Swedish slagg; also compare English slay.

verb/ˈslæɡ/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈslaɡ/British, Northern-England, Scotland, Southern, Standard, Wales/ˈslæ(ː)ɡ/Australia/ˈslɛɡ/New-Zealand

  1. To produce slag.

    transitive

  2. To become slag; to agglomerate when heated below the fusion point.

    intransitive

  3. To reduce to slag.

    transitive

  4. To talk badly about; to malign or denigrate (someone).

    UK · slang · transitive

  5. To make fun of; to take the piss (tease, ridicule or mock).

    Ireland · slang · transitive

  6. To spit.

    Australia · intransitive · slang
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Middle Low German slagge, slaggen (“slag, dross”), from Old Saxon *slaggo, from Proto-West Germanic *slaggō, from Proto-Germanic *slaggô, from Proto-Germanic *slagōną (“to strike”) + *-gô (diminutive suffix). Compare Middle Low German slāgen (“to strike”), since originally the splinters struck off from the metal by hammering, from *slagōn, from Proto-West Germanic *slagōn. Compare also Old Saxon slegi, from Proto-West Germanic *slagi. See also Dutch slak, German Schlacke, Swedish slagg; also compare English slay.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.