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Synonyms

slew

1 American  
[sloo] / slu /

verb

  1. simple past tense of slay.

slew 2 American  
[sloo] / slu /
Or slue

noun

Informal.

  1. a large number or quantity.

    a whole slew of people.
slew 1 British  
/ sluː /

verb

  1. to twist or be twisted sideways, esp awkwardly

    he slewed around in his chair

  2. nautical to cause (a mast) to rotate in its step or (of a mast) to rotate in its step

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

noun

  1. the act of slewing

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
slew 2 British  
/ sluː /

verb

  1. the past tense of slay

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
slew 3 British  
/ sluː /

noun

  1. a variant spelling (esp US) of slough 1

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
slew 4 British  
/ sluː /

noun

  1. informal a great number or amount; a lot

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of slew

1830–40, < Irish sluagh crowd, throng, army, host

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Global smartphone sales are picking up steam again, powered by a slew of new models offering innovative new features -- many of them from Chinese manufacturers.

From Barron's

A slew of software earnings late Wednesday, including Salesforce, and Snowflake may add weight to concerns that some sectors may get left behind by the AI revolution.

From Barron's

A slew of software earnings late Wednesday, including Salesforce, and Snowflake may add weight to concerns that some sectors may get left behind by the AI revolution.

From Barron's

But now a preview of how that might happen is coming to football fields across America sooner than you think—along with a slew of other radical changes.

From The Wall Street Journal

With a controversial slew of bridges and widened streets completed in 2020, Cairo's historic Heliopolis neighbourhood lost its last tram tracks, along with many of its trees.

From Barron's

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.