slather
English edit
Etymology edit
Unknown; attested from early 19th century, in the sense "to slip, slide".
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
slather (third-person singular simple present slathers, present participle slathering, simple past and past participle slathered) (transitive)
- To spread something thickly on something else; to coat well.
- I slathered jam on my toast.
- (often followed by with) To apply generously upon.
- I slathered my toast with jam.
- To squander.
Translations edit
to spread something thickly on something else; to coat well
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to apply generously upon
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Noun edit
slather (plural slathers)
- (cooking) A thick sauce or spread that is to be slathered (spread thickly) onto food.
- Drool (especially if abundant).
- 1983, Edda: A Collection of Essays (Robert James Glendinning), page 177:
- [The river] Ván in SnE I 21 is mentioned as coming from the slather of the bound Fenris Wolf.
- 1983, Edda: A Collection of Essays (Robert James Glendinning), page 177:
- (usually in the plural) A generous or abundant quantity.
- 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
- Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand. We spent consider'ble money getting 'em reset, and then a swordfish got into the pound and tore the nets all to slathers, right in the middle of the squiteague season.
- 1919, Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter 24, in Rainbow Valley:
- In her eyes the manse people were quite fabulously rich, and no doubt those girls had slathers of shoes and stockings.