• enPR: slŭg, IPA: /slʌɡ/

Originally referred to a slow, lazy person, from Middle English slugge, probably of either Old English or Old Norse - origin; compare nrn slug, dialectal Norwegian slugg, sluggje, Danish slog; perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European , from *sley- ("smooth; slick; sticky; slimy") or otherwise from the root of Old Norse slókr, whence Icelandic slókur.

slug (plural slugs)

1. Any of many terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks, having no (or only a rudimentary) shell. [from early 18^th c.]
2. (obsolete) A slow, lazy person; a sluggard. [from early 15^th c.]
3. A bullet or other projectile fired from a firearm; in modern usage, generally refers to a shotgun slug. [from 1620s]
   • 1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar‎, London, page 55:

     […] all our Ammunition was spent. Those of us who had Money made Slugs of it; their next Shift was to take the middle Screws out of their Guns, and charge their Pieces with them.

4. A solid block or piece of roughly shaped metal.
5. A counterfeit coin, especially one used to steal from vending machines. [from 1880s]
6. A shot of a drink, usually alcoholic. [from 1750s]
7. (journalism) A title, name or header, a catchline, a short phrase or title to indicate the content of a newspaper or magazine story for editing use. [from 1920s]
8. (physics, rare) The imperial (English) unit of mass that accelerates by 1 foot per second squared (1 ft/s²) when a force of one pound-force (lbf) is exerted on it.

   Synonyms: geepound

   The average slug has a mass of around 0.00002 slugs.

9. A discrete mass of a material that moves as a unit, usually through another material.
10. A motile pseudoplasmodium formed by amoebae working together.
11. (railroading) An accessory to a diesel-electric locomotive, used to increase adhesive weight and allow full power to be applied at a lower speed. It has trucks with traction motors, but lacks a prime mover, being powered by electricity from the mother locomotive, and may or may not have a control cab.
12. (television editing) A black screen.
13. (metal typesetting) A piece of type metal imprinted by a linotype machine; also a black mark placed in the margin to indicate an error; also said in application to typewriters; type slug.
14. (regional) A stranger picked up as a passenger to enable legal use of high occupancy vehicle lanes.
15. (US, slang, District of Columbia) A hitchhiking commuter.
16. (web development, SEO) The last part of a clean URL, the displayed resource name, similar to a filename.
17. (obsolete) A hindrance, an obstruction.
    • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Usury”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC ↗:

      money would be stirring, if it were not for this slug

18. A ship that sails slowly.
    • 1666, Samuel Pepys, Diary entry 17 October 1666:

      His rendezvous for his fleet, and for all sluggs to come to, should be between Calais and Dover.

19. (screenwriting) A block of text at the beginning of a scene that sets up the scene's location, characters, etc.

• (small amount of liquor) see nip & Thesaurus:drink

• lug
• sluggard

• French: limace
• German: Nacktschnecke, Schnecke
• Italian: lumaca, limaccia, chiocciola
• Portuguese: lesma
• Russian: сли́зень
• Spanish: babosa, limaco

• French: pruneau, dragée, bastos
• Portuguese: bala, projétil, chumbinho
• Russian: пу́ля

• Portuguese: dose, trago
• Russian: сто́пка

slug (slugs, present participle slugging; simple past and past participle slugged)

1. To drink quickly; to gulp; to down.
2. To take part in casual carpooling; to form ad hoc, informal carpools for commuting, essentially a variation of ride-share commuting and hitchhiking.
3. (intransitive, of a bullet) To become reduced in diameter, or changed in shape, by passing from a larger to a smaller part of the bore of the barrel.
4. (obsolete, intransitive) To move slowly or sluggishly; to lie idle.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗, stanza 23:

     To slug in slouth and sensuall delights.

5. (transitive) To load with a slug or slugs.

   to slug a gun

6. To make sluggish.
   • 1692, John Milton, translated by [Joseph Washington], A Defence of the People of England, […]: In Answer to Salmasius's Defence of the King, [London?: s.n.], →OCLC ↗:

     So little do we fear , you slug you

• German: hinunterstürzen, trinken
• Portuguese: beber

slug (plural slugs)

1. A hard blow, usually with the fist. [from 1830s]

slug (slugs, present participle slugging; simple past and past participle slugged)

1. (transitive) To hit very hard, usually with the fist.

   He insulted my mother, so I slugged him.

   The fighter slugged his opponent into unconsciousness.

• German: schlagen, niederschlagen, prügeln, verprügeln
• Portuguese: derrubar

slug (plural slugs)

1. (US, finance, informal) A special-purpose security of the State and Local Government Series.