slab

• IPA^(key): /slæb/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æb

From Middle English sclabbe, slabbe, of uncertain origin; possibly from *slap, related to dialectal slappel (“portion, piece”), along with slape (“slippery”), sleip (“smooth piece of timber”), borrowed through Old Norse sleipr from Proto-Germanic *slaipaz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)leyb-. See also Norwegian sleip (“slippery”) and Icelandic sleipur.

slab (plural slabs)

1. A large, flat piece of solid material; a solid object that is large and flat.
   • 1859, John Lang, Botany Bay, or, True Tales of Early Australia, page 155:

     There were no windows in the inn. They were not required, since the interstices between the slabs suffered the wind, the rain, and the light of day to penetrate simultaneously.

   • 1913 August, Jack London, chapter V, in John Barleycorn, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 45:

     Then there was the Mexican who sold big slabs of chewing taffy for five cents each. […] And many a day I made my entire lunch off of one of those slabs.

   • 1962, “Monster Mash”, Bobby "Boris" Pickett and Lenny Capizzi (lyrics), performed by Bobby (Boris) Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers:

     I was working in the lab late one night
     When my eyes beheld an eerie sight
     For my monster, from his slab, began to rise
     And suddenly, to my surprise
     He did the Mash
     He did the Monster Mash.

   • 2010, Ryan Humphreys, The Flirtations of Dan Harris, page 73:

     “The pier? You mean those few sodden logs tied together and that dingy slab of rough concrete.”

2. A paving stone; a flagstone.
3. (Australia) A carton containing 24 cans (chiefly of beer). [from 20th c.]
   • 2001, Les Carlyon, Gallipoli, page 8:

     The Australians murder a few slabs of beer and the New Zealanders murder a few vowels.

   • 2002, Alex Miller, Journey to the Stone Country, Allen & Unwin, published 2003, page 88:

     The older man bought a slab of Coca-Cola at the counter and carried it out ahead of the younger man.

   • 2008, Diem Vo, Family Life, Alice Pung (editor), page 156,

     However, unlike in Ramsay Street, there were never any cups of tea or bickies served. Instead, each family unit came armed with a slab of beer.

   • 2010, Holly Smith, Perth, Western Australia & the Outback, Hunter Publishing, unnumbered page:

     Common 375-ml cans are called tinnies, and can be bought in 24-can slabs for discounted prices.

   • 2009, Ross Fitzgerald, Trevor Jordan, Under the Influence: A History of Alcohol in Australia, published 2011, unnumbered page:

     One essential part of the strategy for selling regionally identified beers beyond their borders was the selling of slabs — a package of four six-packs of stubbies or cans — for discounted prices interstate.

4. An outside piece taken from a log or timber when sawing it into boards, planks, etc.
5. (nautical) The slack part of a sail.
6. (surfing) A very large wave.
   • 2009, Bruce Boal, The Surfing Yearbook, SurfersVillage, page 31:

     After being towed into a massive slab, Dorian dropped down the face and caught a rail, putting him in a near-impossible situation.

   • 2011, Douglas Booth, Surfing: The Ultimate Guide, page 95:

     In August 2000 he successfully rode a slab of unfathomable power at Teahupo′o.

7. (programming) The amount by which a cache can grow or shrink, used in memory allocation.
8. (geology) Part of a tectonic plate that is being, or has been, subducted.
   • 2015, Dapeng Zhao, Multiscale Seismic Tomography, Springer, page 72:

     Being driven by the gravitational force, the subducting Pacific slab continues to sink down to the boundary between the upper and lower mantle […]

9. (construction) A poured-concrete foundation for a building.

   Next week they'll pour the slab that the shed will sit on.

10. (geometry) A region between two parallel lines in the Euclidean plane, or between two parallel planes in three-dimensional Euclidean space, or between two hyperplanes in higher dimensions.
12. (taxation, especially India) Any of the several portions or tiers in a tax rate plan.

    Near-synonym: tax bracket

    • 2025 September 5, Chandrajit Banerjee, “GST 2.0 is a landmark in India's tax journey. The simplification of the multiple GST slabs is an example of people's reform”, in The Hindu‎^[1]:

      The 56th meeting of the GST Council [for the Goods and Services Tax] on September 3, 2025 will be remembered as a defining milestone in India's tax history. These reforms go far beyond tax rates and structures. They represent a decisive shift towards a simpler, fairer, and growth-oriented system that is aligned with the aspirations of a Viksit Bharat 2047. A long-standing demand of both industry and consumers has been simplification of the multiple GST slabs (5%, 12%, 18%, and 28%). The move to a transparent “Simple Tax”, with just two rates, 18% as the Standard Rate and 5% as the Merit Rate, along with a 40% de-merit rate for a select few goods — is transformational.

13. A flat, sealed plastic case that encloses a flat collector's item, such as a coin or a trading card.
14. (US, slang) A large, luxury pre-1980 General Motors vehicle, particularly a Buick, Oldsmobile, or Cadillac.

    Hypernyms: sled, land yacht, boat < car < motor vehicle < vehicle

    • 2016, Langston Collin Wilkins, “Officially Ridin' Swangas: Slab as tangible and intangible cultural heritage in Houston, Texas”, in Michelle L. Stefano, Peter Davis, editor, The Routledge Companion to Intangible Cultural Heritage, page 206:

      Video screens have also become a standard part of slab interiors.

    • 2021 March 23, Peter Holley, “They Just Moved Into an Austin Neighborhood. Now They Want to End One of Its Traditions.”, in Texas Monthly‎^[2]:

      After a few loops around the park, some drivers—most of them Black and Latino men in their twenties and thirties driving customized lowriders, bright, candy-colored slabs, and jacked-up trucks with flashy chrome rims—packed into a nearby middle school parking lot.

15. (physical geography) Ellipsis of slab avalanche.

slab (third-person singular simple present slabs, present participle slabbing, simple past and past participle slabbed)

1. (transitive) To make into a slab.
2. (transitive, informal) To destroy (a structure) so completely as to leave only the foundation slab visible.

   Synonym: raze

   Multiple homes were slabbed by the monster tornado.

Compare Scottish Gaelic slàib (“mud”) and Irish slaba (“muddy flat”), and English slop (“puddle”).

slab (uncountable)

1. (archaic) Mud, sludge, or other viscous matter.
   • 1664, J[ohn] E[velyn], Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. […], London: […] Jo[hn] Martyn, and Ja[mes] Allestry, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC:

     Some do also plant oziers in their eights, like quick-sets, thick, and (near the water) keep them not more than half a foot above ground; but then they must be diligently cleansed from moss, slab, and ouze, and frequently prun'd (especially the smaller spires) to form single shoots; […] .

• slabby

slab (comparative slabber or more slab, superlative slabbest or most slab)

1. (archaic) Thick; viscous.
   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

     Make the gruel thick and slab:

• “slab”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Acronym of Slow, Loud And Bangin'. This term been popularized through the southern rap genre of hip-hop, most notably by rappers such as Paul Wall, Chamillionaire, Lil' Keke, and others.

slab (plural slabs)

1. (Southern US, slang) A car that has been modified with equipment such as loudspeakers, lights, special paint, hydraulics, and other accessories.
   • 2005, Chamillionaire (featuring Krayzie Bone), "Ridin'", The Sound of Revenge:

     Pull me over, try to check my slab

   • 2006, Trae (featuring Pimp C and Big Hawk), "Swang", Restless:

     I'mma swang, I'mma swing my slab lean to the left

   • 2012, Bobby Austin, By All Mean$, AuthorHouse, published 2012, →ISBN, page 56:

     All three of them recognized who the Lexus'^[sic] belonged to so he parked his slab and they cocked their guns.

slab (plural slabs)

1. (British dialect, obsolete) A bird, the wryneck.

From syllable.

slab (plural slabs)

1. (computing) A sequence of 12 adjacent bits, serving as a byte in some computers.

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “slab”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

• labs, BLAS, BASL, albs, BLAs, BALs, Labs, LABs, B.L.A.S.

• slabu

From a Slavic language, ultimately from Proto-Slavic *slàbъ. Compare Romanian slab, Bulgarian and Macedonian слаб (slab), Serbo-Croatian slȁb.

slab m (feminine slabã, masculine plural slaghi, feminine plural slabi or slabe)

1. weak
2. lean, thin, skinny
3. bad, wicked, evil

• (bad): arãu

• (antonym(s) of “weak”): vãrtos, cadãr, putut, ndrumin, silnãos
• (antonym(s) of “thin, lean”): gras
• (antonym(s) of “bad”): bun

• slãbintsã
• slãbushcu

• slãghescu

slab m

1. evil

• arãu, rãu

• slabã

From slabdoek.

• IPA^(key): /slɑp/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: slab
• Rhymes: -ɑp
• Homophone: slap

slab f (plural slabben, diminutive slabbetje n)

1. (also very common in the diminutive) bib

   Synonyms: slabdoek, slabber

Borrowed from English slab.

slab m (invariable)

1. slab (of metal to be worked)

   Synonym: bramma

Borrowed from Old Church Slavonic слабъ (slabŭ), from Proto-Slavic *slàbъ. Compare Aromanian slab, Bulgarian and Macedonian слаб (slab), Serbo-Croatian slȁb.

• IPA^(key): [slab]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio:

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slab m or n (feminine singular slabă, masculine plural slabi, feminine/neuter plural slabe)

1. weak

   Antonym: puternic

2. thin, skinny

   Antonym: gras

• subțire

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *slàbъ, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)leh₂b- (“to be weak, limp, languid”).

• IPA^(key): /slâb/

slȁb (Cyrillic spelling сла̏б, definite slȁbī, comparative slabiji)

1. weak

From Proto-Slavic *slàbъ. First attested in the 15th century.

• IPA^(key): /sláp/

slȁb (comparative slȃbši, superlative nȁjslȃbši)

1. bad (not good)
2. weak

The diacritics used in this section of the entry are non-tonal. If you are a native tonal speaker, please help by adding the tonal marks.

Hard
	masculine	feminine	neuter
nom. sing.	slàb	slába	slábo
singular
	masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	slàb ind slábi def	slába	slábo
genitive	slábega	slábe	slábega
dative	slábemu	slábi	slábemu
accusative	nominativeinan or genitiveanim	slábo	slábo
locative	slábem	slábi	slábem
instrumental	slábim	slábo	slábim
dual
	masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	slába	slábi	slábi
genitive	slábih	slábih	slábih
dative	slábima	slábima	slábima
accusative	slába	slábi	slábi
locative	slábih	slábih	slábih
instrumental	slábima	slábima	slábima
plural
	masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	slábi	slábe	slába
genitive	slábih	slábih	slábih
dative	slábim	slábim	slábim
accusative	slábe	slábe	slába
locative	slábih	slábih	slábih
instrumental	slábimi	slábimi	slábimi

This adjective needs an inflection-table template.

• preslȁb

• “slab”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU, portal Fran
• “slab”, in Termania, Amebis
• See also the general references

• yslab

Borrowed from English slab.

• IPA^(key): /slaːb/

slab m (plural slabiau, diminutive slabyn, not mutable)

1. slab, lump clod

   Synonyms: lwmp, darn, cilcyn, cwlff

• D. G. Lewis, N. Lewis, editors (2005–present), “slab”, in Gweiadur: the Welsh–English Dictionary, Gwerin
• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke, et al., editors (1950–present), “slab”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies