slice
/slʌɪs
/noun
1A thin, broad piece of food, such as bread, meat, or cake, cut from a larger portion: four slices of bread potato slices...
- The pudding is made by lining a buttered basin with fairly thin slices of good bread cut to fit exactly.
- The traditional way of eating Gentleman's Relish is on thin slices of buttered white bread toast, alone, with cucumber or with mustard and cress.
- This hearty wedge of egg stuffed with thin slices of potato, red pepper, tomato and herbs on its own would be worth returning for.
Synonyms
piece, portion, wedge, chunk, hunk, lump, slab, segment;
rasher, collop;
sliver, wafer, shaving;
helping;
British round;
Cookery escalope, scallop, scaloppina, fricandeau
British informal wodge
rare hunch
1.1A portion or share of something: local authorities control a huge slice of public spending...
- Let me share with you a slice of our conversation that we had over tea.
- Knowing all this, who's going to pay $5.25 a share for a slice of a declining business?
- That's when companies were trying absolutely radical stuff to gain a slice of market share.
Synonyms
share, part, portion, tranche, piece, bit, parcel, proportion, allotment, allocation, percentage;
ration, quota
informal cut, whack, rake-off
2A utensil with a broad, flat blade for lifting foods such as cake and fish.I wiped me fingers gently down the rabbit's flank, then, shutting my eyes, I slid my hand beneath its limp head like a kitchen slice scooping up a burst pasty....
- This fabulous musical cake slice is perfect for use over the festive period.
- The only trouble is, it seems to replace the white cake slice.
3 Golf A stroke which makes the ball curve away to the right (for a left-handed player, the left).It can help players who hit weak fades or slices, enabling them to hit solid draws....
- Nevertheless he began cautiously, with a four-iron off the 1st tee, his mild slice finding the light rough on the right of the fairway.
- The wind heightens any spin on the ball, and accentuates a slice or a hook.
3.1(In other sports) a shot or stroke made with glancing contact so that the ball travels forward spinning.The final game particularly pleased her coach as Brown mixed up her game, throwing in a few slices and higher top-spun shots and letting Dalton force the pace and make the errors....
- Combining top spins, slices and net shots, she forced Tangphong to make a string of unforced errors, handing the Indonesian a crushing first set win.
- At the start, Graf had problems with the slice on the Davenport serve.
verb [with object]
1Cut (something, especially food) into slices: slice the onion into rings (as adjective sliced) a sliced loaf...
- Its warm creaminess qualifies oatmeal as a comfort food, and adding sliced strawberries or apple gives it an antioxidant punch.
- You can add any sort of meat, sliced onions, sliced tomatoes, bacon, sausage or pineapple.
- He takes control of serving the food now, slicing the steaks into even, thin slices and arranging them on Olivia's plate.
Synonyms
cut, cut up, carve, divide, segment, section
1.1 (slice something off/from) Cut something from (something larger) with a sharp implement: he sliced a corner from a fried egg figurative he sliced 70 seconds off the record...
- The implement slices the tops off the grain hulls and then squeezes the pulp and kernels from the cob while leaving the hulls attached.
- Bragadino's nose and ears were sliced off after he had watched his officers and staff being beheaded.
- Someone busted his forehead open with a car stereo; another rioter tried to slice his ear off.
Synonyms
cut off, sever, chop off, hack off, shear off;
separate
rare dissever
1.2Cut with or as if with a sharp implement: the bomber’s wings were slicing the air with some efficiency [no object]: the blade sliced into his palm...
- If you pick roses for a vase, use a sharp knife to slice the base of the stem, then crush the wound to aid water-absorption.
- Using a sharp knife, I slice each one diagonally, from just below the handle to the opposite corner of the base.
- With one furious move, Lynette took the sword in her own hand, she hardly felt the pain in her fingers as the sharp blade sliced through her palm.
1.3 [no object, with adverbial of direction] Move easily and quickly: Grimsby sliced through Swindon’s defence...
- It was a tremendous machine. It moved gracefully, slicing through the water as if it existed simply for the service of this craft alone.
- The crowd stood up so they could see the specks, combined into one, quickly slicing through the sky.
- I dropped the bait, and a grouper grabbed it and took it up the reef, where it was robbed by a shark that sliced easily through the string attaching the weight before making off with the bait.
2 Golf Strike (the ball) or play (a stroke) so that the ball curves away to the right (for a left-handed player, the left): Duval sliced his ball into the water to the right of the green...
- A golfer badly slices a golf ball, which heads toward the rough, but then bounces off a tree and into the cup for a hole in one.
- After slicing his tee ball into the trees at 18, he pitched out and barely sneaked a six-foot bogey putt in the side door.
- If you tend to slice the ball, I recommend that you tee it a little higher when hitting a driver or low-lofted metal wood.
2.1(In other sports) propel (the ball) with a glancing contact so that it travels forward spinning: Evans went and sliced a corner into his own net...
- The ball doesn't go safe, but Wise does Paraguay's job for them by ridiculously slicing the loose ball into the side netting.
- He only succeeded in slicing the ball and it looped over his own keeper Aaron Brian.
- He can hit line drives or slice the ball to the opposite field.
Phrases
any way (or however) you slice it
slice and dice
a slice of the action
a slice of life
Derivatives
sliceable
- If you've never had them and are curious, consider a pot of split pea soup boiled down until sliceable, and you're about there.
- She also continues to make jobne, a homemade cow's milk cheese served as a fresh spreadable cheese and as a sliceable aged cheese.
- Of course, the sliceable sauce is also suitable as ready-made sauce upon convenience products.
slicer
[often in combination]: a bacon-slicer...
- Featuring old-style scales, bacon slicers and a coffee-grinder, it was a haven of personal service, with everything cut, weighed and wrapped with care.
- The garden also contains a vintage mechanical washing machine as well as antique ploughs, mangles and bacon slicers.
- I believe that slicers tend to try and hit the ball in the downswing with their shoulders and body, rather than the club head itself.
Origin
Middle English (in the sense 'fragment, splinter'): shortening of Old French esclice 'splinter', from the verb esclicier, of Germanic origin; related to German schleissen 'to slice', also to slit.
slate from Middle English:
This is from the Old French esclat ‘a piece broken off’. Slat (Late Middle English) is a variant which meant ‘roofing slate’ until it developed the current sense in the mid 18th century. Schoolchildren formerly used flat pieces of slate for writing on in chalk, and shops and bars used the same materials for keeping a record of what a customer owed. This is the origin of the expression on the slate, ‘to be paid for later, on credit’. The related French esclice ‘splinter’ gives us slice (Middle English) and their common Germanic source also gives us slit (Old English). In the sense ‘to criticize’, dating from the mid 19th century, slate is probably a different word. It might derive from the slightly earlier Irish sense ‘to beat, beat up’ and be related to a Scots use of slate meaning ‘to set a dog on’, which is from Old Norse.