slime

Meaning

Noun

1. (countable, uncountable) Soft, moist earth or clay, having an adhesive quality; viscous mud; any substance of a dirty nature, that is moist, soft, and adhesive; bitumen; mud containing metallic ore, obtained in the preparatory dressing.
2. (countable, uncountable) Any mucilaginous substance; or a mucus-like substance which exudes from the bodies of certain animals, such as snails or slugs.
3. (countable, uncountable) Synonym of flubber (“kind of rubbery polymer”).
4. (countable, derogatory, informal, uncountable) A sneaky, unethical person; a slimeball.
5. (countable, uncountable) A monster having the form of a slimy blob.
6. (countable, figuratively, obsolete, uncountable) Human flesh, seen disparagingly; mere human form.
7. (countable, obsolete, uncountable) Jew’s slime (bitumen).
8. (countable, slang, uncountable) A friend; a homie.

Verb

1. (transitive) To coat with slime.
2. (figuratively, transitive) To besmirch or disparage.
3. To carve (fish), removing the offal.
4. (intransitive) To move like slime.
5. (figuratively, intransitive) To behave in a slimy, unethical manner.
6. (slang, transitive) To murder.
7. (Singapore, transitive) To denigrate or slander.

Synonyms

mud

ooze

sludge

mucus

mire

silt

muck

scum

moss

goo

phlegm

mucilage

gook

guck

clay

dirt

goop

snot

filth

gunge

gunk

nasal mucus

slush

blackish mud

slobber

spit

puddle

saliva

mucous

booger

frig

freak

crud

frame

flip

creep

buttermilk

flame

cream

fetch

face cream

come

butter

🧈

bog

honey

🍯

heck

jelly

jerk

jism

drool

Translations

Schleim

muco

baba

cieno

bava

légamo

limo

modder

slijk

moco

flema

limon

mucosité

vase

melma

Pronounced as (IPA)

/slaɪm/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: slime

Inherited from Old English: slīm

Cognate with Danish: slim

Cognate with Saterland Frisian: Sliem

Cognate with Dutch: slijm

Cognate with German: Schleim

Cognate with Latin: limus

Cognate with Ancient Greek: λίμνη

In summary

From Middle English slime, slyme, slim, slym, from Old English slīm, from Proto-West Germanic *slīm, from Proto-Germanic *slīmą, from Proto-Indo-European *sley- (“smooth; slick; sticky; slimy”). Cognates include Saterland Frisian Sliem, Dutch slijm, German Schleim (“mucus, slime”), Danish slim, Faroese slím (“slime”), Latin limus (“mud”), Ancient Greek λίμνη (límnē, “marsh”).