slab

views updated May 23 2018

slab / slab/ • n. a large, thick, flat piece of stone, concrete, or wood, typically rectangular: paving slabs she settled on a slab of rock. ∎  a large, thick slice or piece of cake, bread, chocolate, etc.: a slab of bread and cheese. ∎  Climbing a large, smooth, steep body of rock. ∎  an outer piece of timber sawn from a log. ∎  a table used for laying a body on in a morgue.• v. (slabbed, slab·bing) [tr.] [often as n.] (slabbing) remove slabs from (a log or tree) to prepare it for sawing into planks.DERIVATIVES: slabbed adj. slab·by adj.

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English

slab

views updated Jun 27 2018

slab. Large flat but not very thick portion of any material. Slabs of stone are used for pavements, the mensa of an altar, cladding, grave-covers, tomb-stones, etc.

A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture JAMES STEVENS CURL

slab

views updated May 18 2018

slab2 (dial.) marshy place, slush. XVII.
So adj. viscid XVII. prob. of Scand. orig. (cf. ODa. slab mud, Icel., Norw., Sw. slabb wet filth).

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology T. F. HOAD

slab

views updated Jun 08 2018

slab1 flat, broad, and thick piece. XIII. of unkn. orig.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology T. F. HOAD

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