Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The vitreous mass left as a residue by the smelting of metallic ore.
  • transitive & intransitive verb To change into or form slag.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A hollow or depression of land.
  • To form a slag, or to cohere when heated so as to become a slag-like mass.
  • noun The earthy matter separated, in a more or less completely fused and vitrified condition, during the reduction of a metal from its ore.
  • noun The scoria of a volcano.
  • noun In the puddling process for making wrought-iron, the slag which forms when, as a preliminary step not always taken, air is blown down upon the surface of a charge of melted cask iron in a specially constructed hearth. Silicon is the principal substance removed from the iron, and the slag consists mainly of ferrous silicate.
  • In metal: To convert into slag: as, an excess of limestone used as a flux may to a greater or less extent slag the lining of a furnace.
  • To cake together as the result of chemical action at a heat lower than that of fusion.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The dross, or recrement, of a metal; also, vitrified cinders.
  • noun The scoria of a volcano.
  • noun (Metal.) A product of smelting, containing, mostly as silicates, the substances not sought to be produced as matte or metal, and having a lower specific gravity than the latter; -- called also, esp. in iron smelting, cinder. The slag of iron blast furnaces is essentially silicate of calcium, magnesium, and aluminium; that of lead and copper smelting furnaces contains iron.
  • noun (Metal.) a furnace, or hearth, for extracting lead from slags or poor ore.
  • noun mineral wool. See under Mineral.
  • verb (Metal.) To form, or form into, a slag; to agglomerate when heated below the fusion point.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Waste material from a coal mine.
  • noun Scum that forms on the surface of molten metal.
  • noun Impurities formed and separated out when a metal is smelted from ore; vitrified cinders (Wikipedia).
  • noun Hard aggregate remaining as a residue from blast furnaces, sometimes used as a surfacing material.
  • noun Scoria associated with a volcano.
  • noun UK, pejorative, dated A coward.
  • noun UK, pejorative A contemptible person, a scumbag.
  • noun UK, pejorative A prostitute.
  • noun UK, Australia, New Zealand, slang, pejorative A woman (sometimes a man) who has loose morals relating to sex; a slut.
  • verb transitive To produce slag.
  • verb transitive, with "off" To talk badly about; to malign or denigrate (someone).
  • verb intransitive, Australia, slang To spit.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb convert into slag
  • noun the scum formed by oxidation at the surface of molten metals

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Low German slagge, from Middle Low German.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Swedish slagg, or Middle Low German slacke, whence German Schlacke; originally, perhaps, the splinters struck off from the metal by hammering; compare slay.

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Examples

Comments

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  • "Other students were then asked to look at the photographed faces and say how easy they reckoned the pictured individual might be. In a staggering 72 per cent of cases, they correctly guessed whether the person in the portrait was or was not a slag."

    The Register, Faces give away giveaways - psych profs' amazing claim, April 9, 2008

    April 10, 2008

  • ...whether the person was the scum formed by oxidization at the surface of molten metals?

    Dude.

    April 10, 2008

  • Yes. It's truly amazing that 72 percent of the time subjects can guess if a person is an oxidized metallic scum.

    April 10, 2008

  • a loose woman

    July 23, 2008