Sky-scraper, a tall man; “Are you cold up there, old SKY-SCRAPER?” Properly a sea-term. The light sails, which some adventurous skippers set above the royals in calm latitudes, are termed SKY-SCRAPERS and MOON-RAKERS.
Sky-wannocking, unsteady frolicking.—Norfolk.
Slab, thick, as gruel, porridge, &c.
Slack, “to hold on the SLACK,” to skulk; a slack rope not requiring to be held.—Sea.
Slam, a term at the game of whist. When two partners gain the whole thirteen tricks, they win a SLAM, which is considered equal to a rubber.
Slam, to talk fluently. “He’s the bloke to SLAM.” From a term in use among birdsingers at the East-end, by which they denote a certain style of note in chaffinches.
Slammock, a slattern or awkward person.—West, and Norfolk.
Slang, low, vulgar, unwritten, or unauthorized language. Gipsy, Slang, the secret language of the gipsies, synonymous with Gibberish, another gipsy word. The word is only to be found in the dictionaries of Webster and Ogilvie. It is given, however, by Grose, in his Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785. Slang, since it has been adopted as an English word, generally implies vulgar language not known or recognised as CANT; and latterly, when applied to speech, it has superseded the word FLASH. Latterly, however, SLANG has become the generic term for all unauthorized language. The earliest instance of the use of the word that can be found, is the following:—
“Let proper nurses be assigned, to take care of these babes of grace, [young thieves].... The master who teaches them should be a man well versed in the cant language commonly called the SLANG patter, in which they should by all means excel.”—Jonathan Wild’s Advice to his Successor. London, J. Scott, 1758.
Slang, a travelling show.