slip

slip¹

—slipless, adj. —slippingly, adv.

/slip/, v., slipped or (Archaic) slipt; slipped; slipping; n.

v.i.

1. to move, flow, pass, or go smoothly or easily; glide; slide: Water slips off a smooth surface.

2. to slide suddenly or involuntarily; to lose one's foothold, as on a smooth surface: She slipped on the icy ground.

3. to move, slide, or start gradually from a place or position: His hat had slipped over his eyes.

4. to slide out of or become disengaged from a fastening, the grasp, etc.: The soap slipped from my hand.

5. to pass without having been acted upon or used; be lost; get away: to let an opportunity slip.

6. to pass from the mind, memory, or consciousness.

7. to elapse or pass quickly or imperceptibly (often fol. by away or by): The years slipped by.

8. to become involved or absorbed easily: to slip into a new way of life.

9. to move or go quietly, cautiously, or unobtrusively: to slip out of a room.

10. to put on or take off a garment easily or quickly: She slipped on the new sweater. He slipped off his shoes.

11. to make a mistake or error: As far as I know, you haven't slipped once.

12. to fall below a standard or accustomed level, or to decrease in quantity or quality; decline; deteriorate: His work slipped last year.

13. to be said or revealed inadvertently (usually fol. by out): The words just slipped out.

14. to read, study, consider, etc., without attention: He slipped over the most important part.

15. Aeron. (of an aircraft when excessively banked) to slide sideways, toward the center of the curve described in turning. Cf. skid (def. 18).

v.t.

16. to cause to move, pass, go, etc., with a smooth, easy, or sliding motion.

17. to put, place, pass, insert, or withdraw quickly or stealthily: to slip a letter into a person's hand.

18. to put on or take off (a garment) easily or quickly: He slipped the shirt over his head.

19. to let or make (something) slide out of a fastening, the hold, etc.: I slipped the lock, and the door creaked open.

20. to release from a leash, harness, etc., as a hound or a hawk.

21. to get away or free oneself from; escape (a pursuer, restraint, leash, etc.): The cow slipped its halter.

22. to untie or undo (a knot).

23. Naut. to let go entirely, as an anchor cable or an anchor.

24. to pass from or escape (one's memory, attention, knowledge, etc.).

25. to dislocate; put out of joint or position: I slipped a disk in my back.

26. to shed or cast: The rattlesnake slipped its skin.

27. to ignore, pass over, or omit, as in speaking or writing.

28. to let pass unheeded; neglect or miss.

29. Boxing. to evade or avoid (a blow) by moving or turning the body quickly: He slipped a right and countered with a hard left.

30. (of animals) to bring forth (offspring) prematurely.

31. Brit. to detach (a railway car) from a moving train as it passes through a station.

32. let slip, to reveal unintentionally: to let slip the truth.

33. slip a cog. See cog¹ (def. 6).

34. slip away,

a. to depart quietly or unobtrusively; steal off.

b. to recede; slowly vanish: All those facts I had memorized just slipped away.

35. slip between the cracks. See crack (def. 52).

36. slip someone's mind, to be forgotten: I was supposed to phone, but it slipped my mind.

37. slip something over on, to deceive; defraud; trick. Also, slip one over on.

38. slip up, to make an error; fail: I slipped up and put the letter in the wrong envelope.

n.

39. an act or instance of slipping.

40. a sudden losing of one's foothold, as on slippery ground.

41. a mistake in judgment; blunder.

42. a mistake or oversight, as in speaking or writing, esp. a small one due to carelessness: a minor slip in addition; a slip of the tongue.

43. an error in conduct; indiscretion.

44. something easily slipped on or off.

45. a decline or fall in quantity, quality, extent, etc., or from a standard or accustomed level: a slip in prices.

46. Clothing.

a. a woman's undergarment, sleeveless and usually having shoulder straps, extending from above the bust down to the hemline of the outer dress.

b. an underskirt, as a half-slip or petticoat.

47. a pillowcase.

48. an inclined plane, sloping to the water, on which vessels are built or repaired.

49. Naut. the difference between the speed at which a screw propeller or paddle wheel would move if it were working against a solid and the actual speed at which it advances through the water.

50. a space between two wharves or in a dock for vessels to lie in.

51. Elect. the difference between the synchronous and the operating speeds of a motor.

52. Mach.

a. the difference between output speed and input or theoretical speed in certain fluid or electromagnetic devices, as couplings or motors.

b. (in pumps) the difference between the actual volume of water or other liquid delivered by a pump during one complete stroke and the theoretical volume as determined by calculation of the displacement.

53. unintended movement or play between mechanical parts or the like.

54. Cricket.

a. the position of a fielder who stands behind and to the offside of the wicketkeeper.

b. the fielder playing this position.

55. Geol.

a. the relative displacement of formerly adjacent points on opposite sides of a fault, measured along the fault plane.

b. a small fault.

56. Also called glide. Metall. plastic deformation of one part of a metallic crystal relative to the other part due to shearing action.

57. give someone the slip, to elude a pursuer; escape: The murderer gave the police the slip.

[1250-1300; (v.) ME slippen < MD slippen; c. OHG slipfen; (n.) late ME slippe, deriv. of or akin to the v.; cf. OHG slipf a sliding, slipping, error; akin to SLIPPER²]

Syn. 1, 2. slither. See slide. 11. err, blunder. 42. error, fault. See mistake.

slip²

/slip/, n., v., slipped, slipping.

n.

1. a small paper form on which information is noted: a withdrawal slip.

2. a piece suitable for propagation cut from a plant; scion or cutting.

3. any long, narrow piece or strip, as of wood, paper, or land.

4. a young person, esp. one of slender form: a mere slip of a girl.

5. a long seat or narrow pew in a church.

6. Bookbinding. one of the ends of a band, extending at the sides of a book after sewing.

v.t.

7. to take slips or cuttings from (a plant).

8. to take (a part), as a slip from a plant.

[1400-50; late ME slippe < MD slippe flap (of a piece of clothing)]

slip³

/slip/, n.

1. Ceram. a clay solution of creamy consistency for coating or decorating biscuit.

2. a glass-bearing liquid fired onto steel as a cladding, as in making enamelware.

[bef. 1000; ME slyppe, OE slype semiliquid mass; cf. SLOP¹, COWSLIP, OXSLIP]

slip⁴

/slip/, n. Archit.

slype.

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▪ crystals

      in engineering and physics, sliding displacement along a plane of one part of a crystal relative to the rest of the crystal under the action of shearing forces—that is, forces acting parallel to that plane. Much of the permanent, or plastic, deformation of materials under stress is the result of slip within the individual crystals that constitute the material. Slip and an alternate mode of deformation, twinning, are the only ways that crystals in solids can be permanently deformed. In slip, all the atoms on one side of the slip (or glide) plane do not slide simultaneously from one set of positions to the next. The atoms move sequentially one row at a time into the next position along the plane because of structural defects or spaces, called edge dislocations, in the crystal that move at the same rate in the opposite direction.

      Viewed as a large-scale phenomenon as in the deformation of a piece of metal, slip involves the passage of a large number of dislocations on nearby slip planes within many of the individual crystals. Slip lines in crystals, seen with the aid of an optical microscope, appear as bands of many slip planes under the greater magnification of the electron microscope.

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