Word: slag Part of Speech: noun Etymology: 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. Pronunciation: /ˈslæɡ/, [ˈslæɡ], /ˈsleɪ̯ɡ/, [ˈsleɪ̯ɡ] 1. Waste material from a mine. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: After the big village, the scenery had returned to grass and woodland, but this had now given way to ugly mounds of discarded slag. Beyond the slag was a colliery with its machinery and smoking chimney, making the whole area look grim and austere. 2. Scum that forms on the surface of molten metal. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: 2006, Melisa W. Lai, Michele Burns Ewald, Chapter 95: Silver, Martin J. Wonsiewicz, Karen G. Edmonson, Peter J. Boyle (editors), Goldfrank′s Toxicologic Emergencies, 8th Edition, page 1358, In Asia Minor and on islands in the Aegean Sea, dumps of slag (scum formed by molten metal surface oxidation) demonstrate that silver was being separated from lead as early as 5000 BC. Example: He leans out over the track and skims slag off the top of the boiling steel, risking what is called “catching a flyer,” which occurs when hot metal explodes out of the mold, spraying everyone in the vicinity. 3. Impurities formed and separated out when a metal is smelted from ore; vitrified cinders. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Buried within the Mediterranean littoral are some seventy to ninety million tons of slag from ancient smelting, about a third of it concentrated in Iberia. This ceaseless industrial fueling caused the deforestation of an estimated fifty to seventy million acres of woodlands. Example: Consequently, mounds of large ‘cakes’ of slag are often found near the smelting sites of the Late Bronze Age, as for example at Ramsau in Austria (Doonan et al. 1996). 4. Hard aggregate remaining as a residue from blast furnaces, sometimes used as a surfacing material. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: During blast furnace operations, the plant operator pays careful attention to the slag chemistry (both composition and variability) as slag behavior is a major consideration in ensuring the quality of hot metal (molten iron). Example: All these properties are determined by slag composition and its temperature. In basic slags, foaming ability increases as SiO₂ concentration grows. 5. Scoria associated with a volcano. Labels: countable, uncountable 6. A prostitute or promiscuous woman; a slut. Labels: Australia, Ireland, UK, countable, derogatory, slang, uncountable Example: 1984, Tristan Jones, Heart of Oak, 1997, paperback edition, page 260, We never talked about that, of course; we talked about how we could find a woman in the Dilly, and if the Yanks had taken them all, how we could always resort to the peroxided older slags who hung out around the side doors to Waterloo station and did knee tremblers for the Yanks. Example: Which grotesque auld hing-oot will the shrivelled post-menopausal slag want tae shaft? Stay tuned. 7. A coward. Labels: Ireland, UK, countable, dated, derogatory, uncountable 8. A contemptible person, a scumbag. Labels: Cockney, Ireland, UK, countable, derogatory, uncountable Example: The writers took it for granted that England, with its working class composed of slags, purple-nosed losers, and animals fed on pinball, pornography and junk-food, was disintegrating into terminal class-struggle. Example: The sycophantic slags all say / "I knew him first, and I knew him well"