Slat, subs. (old).—Half-a-crown: 2/6; see Rhino (Grose); also (B. E.) slate.
Verb. (American).—To throw, beat, or move with violence.
1604. Marston, Malcontent. Slatted his brains out, then soused him in the briny sea.
1846. N. Y. Com. Advtr., 15 May. Aunt Nancy would retire to the kitchen, and taking up the dipper, would slat round the hot water from a kettle.
c.1859. Layfayette Chronicle [Bartlett]. Suz alive! but warn't my dander up to hear myself called a flat? down I slat the basket, and upsought all the berries.
1865. Major Jack Downing, 200. With that I handed him my axe, and he slatted about the chamber a spell.
Slate, subs. (Old Cant).—1. A
sheet (Dekker and Grose):
also (B. E.) slat.
1567. Harman, Caveat [E. E. T. S.], 76. A kynching morte is a lytle gyrle; the Mortes their mothers carries them at their backs in their slates.
1611. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1. I have, by the Salomon, a doxy that carries a kinchin-mort in her slate at her back.
1622. Fletcher, Beggar's Busk, iii. 3. To mill from the Ruffmans commission and slates.
2. (American political).—A preliminary list of candidates recommended to office; a party programme. [In practice a secret understanding between leaders as to the candidates they desire the nominating Convention to adopt.] To smash (or break) the slate = to defeat the wire-pullers; to slate = (1) to prepare, and (2) to be included in such a list. Slate-smasher = a leader who ignores the wishes of his party.
1877. N. Y. Tribune, 1 Mar. The facts about the latest Cabinet slate . . . are interesting as showing . . . the course of President Hayes in choosing his advisers.
Verb. (colloquial).—1. To reprimand or criticise; to cut up (q.v.). [Formerly slat = to bait.] Hence slating (or a slate) = a blowing up; severe censure; unsparing criticism.
c.1300. R. de Brunne, MS. Bowes, 55. The apostille says that God thaim hatys, And over alle other with thaim slatys.
1889. Blackmore, Kit and Kitty, xxxi. And instead of being grateful you set to and slate me.
1890. Kipling, Light that Failed, iv. None the less I'll slate him. I'll slate him ponderously in the catacylsm.
1902. Kernahan, Scoundrels, iv. If crimes were 'reviewed' in the same way as stories a critic might slate the two offences [lack of originality in crime and books] in almost identical words.
2. (Halliwell).—'A woman is said to be slated when her petticoat falls below her gown.'
3. (common).—To bash a man's hat over the eyes; to bonnet (q.v.).
4. (sporting).—To bet heavily against an entry.
A slate off (loose, &c.), subs. phr. (common).—Crazy; a tile loose (q.v.)
Slater's Pan, subs. phr. (obsolete).—'The
gaol of Kingston in
Jamaica; Slater is the deputy
provost-marshall' (Grose).
Slathers, subs. (American).—Abundance;
'lashin's an' lavin's.'
1876. Clemens, Tom Sawyer, 75. I am going to be a clown at a circus. They get slathers of money—most a dollar a day.
18[?]. New Princeton Rev. [Century]. Mr. can repeat slathers and slathers of another man's literature.
