SLUR • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Slur

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/slər/ Listen

noun

Slur n.

1.

A mark or stain; hence, a slight reproach or disgrace; a stigma; a reproachful intimation; an innuendo. "Gaining to his name a lasting slur."

2.

A trick played upon a person; an imposition. (R.)

3.

(Mus.) A mark connecting notes that are to be sung to the same syllable, or made in one continued breath of a wind instrument, or with one stroke of a bow; a tie; a sign of legato.

4.

In knitting machines, a contrivance for depressing the sinkers successively by passing over them.

verb

Slur v. t. (past & past part. slurred; pres. part. slurring)

1.

To soil; to sully; to contaminate; to disgrace.

2.

To disparage; to traduce.

3.

To cover over; to disguise; to conceal; to pass over lightly or with little notice. "With periods, points, and tropes, he slurs his crimes."

4.

To cheat, as by sliding a die; to trick. (R.) "To slur men of what they fought for."

5.

To pronounce indistinctly; as, to slur syllables; to slur one's words.

6.

(Mus.) To sing or perform in a smooth, gliding style; to connect smoothly in performing, as several notes or tones.

7.

(Print.) To blur or double, as an impression from type; to mackle.

See images of 'Slur'

Etymology of 'Slur'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"Slur" Quotes from Famous Books

... power, Benedetto. With an anonymous letter you could denounce me to-morrow as an escaped galley-slave and have me sent back to the galleys. I would not care a snap for that, but I most emphatically forbid you to throw a slur upon the reputation of the woman who lives with me under ...

— The Son of Monte-Cristo, Volume II (of 2) • Alexandre Dumas pere

... should have brought him much more, if I had known that there was any such person. You have other children; if you leave him anything, you will be taking it away from your own flesh and blood; if you leave him nothing, it will be a slur upon him. I must therefore send you enough gold, to provide for George as your other children will be provided for; you can settle it upon him at once, and make it clear that the settlement is ...

— Erewhon Revisited • Samuel Butler

... fine player at whist, and piquet, and ombre, and all sorts of card-playing. So you see he could afford to play fair. The first time he came down, he fought three duels about a tipsy quarrel over a pool of Pope Joan. There was no slur on his credit, though; 'twas just a bit of temper. He wounded all three; two but trifling; but one of them—Chapley, or Capley, I think, was his name—through the lungs, and he died, I heard, abroad. I ...

— The House by the Church-Yard • J. Sheridan Le Fanu

... really distressed, when he fixed upon some necessitous and greedy emigrants for his instruments to play on the credulity of the English Ministers in some of their unguarded moments. Their generosity in forbearing to avenge upon the deluded French exiles the slur attempted to be thrown upon their official capacity, and the ridicule intended to be cast on their private characters, has been much approved and admired here by all liberal-minded persons; but it has also much disappointed ...

— Marguerite de Navarre - Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois Queen of Navarre • Marguerite de Navarre

... that discretion I respect in you—with that foresight, prudence, and humility which befit your responsible and dependent position—that in case I married Miss Ingram, both you and little Adele had better trot forthwith. I pass over the sort of slur conveyed in this suggestion on the character of my beloved; indeed, when you are far away, Janet, I'll try to forget it: I shall notice only its wisdom; which is such that I have made it my law of action. Adele must go to school; and you, Miss Eyre, ...

— Jane Eyre - an Autobiography • Charlotte Bronte

Copyright © 2025 Dictionary One.com