slime

English

Etymology

From Old English slīm, from Proto-Germanic. Cognates include Dutch slijm, German Schleim (“mucus, slime”), also see Latin limus (“mud”), Ancient Greek λίμνη (límnē, “marsh”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: slīm, IPA: /slaɪm/, X-SAMPA: /slaIm/
• Rhymes: -aɪm

Noun

slime (plural slimes)

1. Soft, moist earth or clay, having an adhesive quality; viscous mud; any substance of a dirty nature, that is moist, soft, and adhesive; bitumen; mud containing metallic ore, obtained in the preparatory dressing.
2. Any mucilaginous substance; or a mucus-like substance which exudes from the bodies of certain animals, such as snails or slugs.
3. (figuratively, obsolete) Human flesh, seen disparagingly; mere human form.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.x:

     th'eternall Lord in fleshly slime / Enwombed was, from wretched Adams line / To purge away the guilt of sinfull crime [...].

4. (obsolete) = Jew’s slime (bitumen)
   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible (Authorized Version), Genesis 11:3

     And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.

Derived terms

• slime mold
• pink slime

Synonyms

• (any substance of a dirty nature): sludge

Translations

Translations

• Basque: elder (eu)
• Czech: sliz (cs) m
• Dutch: slijm (nl) n
• Finnish: lima (fi)
• German: Schleim (de) m

• Japanese: スライム (suraimu), ぬめり (滑り, numeri)
• Maori: hūwareware (mi)
• Portuguese: gosma (pt) f, lodo (pt) m
• Scottish Gaelic: clàbar (gd) m
• Spanish: lama f, cieno m, baba f, légamo m, moco (es) m

Verb

slime (third-person singular simple present slimes, present participle sliming, simple past and past participle slimed)

1. (transitive) To coat with slime.
2. (transitive, figuratively) To besmirch or disparage.

Anagrams

• limes
• miles, Miles
• smile