slang

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle)

CIDE DICTIONARY

slang, imp. 

 imp. of Sling. Slung.  [1913 Webster]

slang, n. 

 Any long, narrow piece of land; a promontory.  Holland.  [1913 Webster]

slang, n. [Cf. Sling.].

 A fetter worn on the leg by a convict.  [1913 Webster]

slang, n. [Said to be of Gypsy origin; but probably from Scand., and akin to E. sling; cf. Norw. sleng a slinging, an invention, device, slengja to sling, to cast, slengja kjeften (literally, to sling the jaw) to use abusive language, to use slang, slenjeord (ord = word) an insulting word, a new word that has no just reason for being.].

 Low, vulgar, unauthorized language; a popular but unauthorized word, phrase, or mode of expression; also, the jargon of some particular calling or class in society; low popular cant; as, the slang of the theater, of college, of sailors, etc.  [1913 Webster]

slang, v. t. 

 To address with slang or ribaldry; to insult with vulgar language.  [1913 Webster]
"Every gentleman abused by a cabman or slanged by a bargee was bound there and then to take off his coat and challenge him to fisticuffs."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

slang, n. & v.
--n. words, phrases, and uses that are regarded as very informal and are often restricted to special contexts or are peculiar to a specified profession, class, etc. (racing slang; schoolboy slang).
--v.
1 tr. use abusive language to.
2 intr. use such language.

Idiom

slanging-match a prolonged exchange of insults.

Etymology

18th-c. cant: orig. unkn.

DEVIL DICTIONARY

slang

n. The grunt of the human hog (_Pignoramus intolerabilis_) with an audible memory. The speech of one who utters with his tongue what he thinks with his ear, and feels the pride of a creator in accomplishing the feat of a parrot. A means (under Providence) of setting up as a wit without a capital of sense.

THESAURUS

slang

Aesopian language, Babel, Greek, argot, babble, barbarism, bluff, bluster, bluster and bluff, bounce, brag, bully, cant, cipher, code, colloquialism, common speech, corruption, cryptogram, double Dutch, garble, gasconade, gibberish, gift of tongues, glossolalia, gobbledygook, hector, illiterate speech, impropriety, intimidate, jargon, jargonal, jargonish, jumble, lingo, localism, mumbo jumbo, noise, out-herod Herod, patois, patter, phraseology, rage, rant, rave, roister, rollick, scatological, scatology, scramble, secret language, slangy, splutter, sputter, storm, substandard language, swagger, swashbuckle, taboo, taboo language, taboo word, vapor, vernacular, vocabulary, vulgar language, vulgar tongue, vulgarism, vulgate

ROGET THESAURUS

slang

Neologism

N neology, neologism, newfangled expression, nonce expression, back-formation, caconym, barbarism, archaism, black letter, monkish Latin, corruption, missaying, malapropism, antiphrasis, pun, paranomasia, play upon words, word play, double- entendre, palindrome, paragram, anagram, clinch, abuse of language, abuse of terms, dialect, brogue, idiom, accent, patois, provincialism, regionalism, localism, broken English, lingua franca, Anglicism, Briticism, Gallicism, Scotticism, Hibernicism, Americanism, Gypsy lingo, Romany, pidgin, pidgin English, pigeon English, Volapuk, Chinook, Esperanto, Hindustani, kitchen Kaffir, dog Latin, macaronics, gibberish, confusion of tongues, Babel, babu English, chi-chi, figure of speech, byword, colloquialism, informal speech, informal language, substandard language, vernacular, vulgar language, obscene language, obscenity, vulgarity, jargon, technical terms, technicality, lingo, slang, cant, argot, St. Gile's Greek, thieves' Latin, peddler's French, flash tongue, Billingsgate, Wall Street slang, pseudology, pseudonym, Mr, So-and-so, wha d'ye call 'em, whatchacallim, what's his name, thingummy, thingumbob, je ne sais quoi, neologist, coiner of words, neologic, neological, archaic, obsolete, colloquial, Anglice.

Inelegance

N inelegance, stiffness, unlettered Muse, barbarism, slang, solecism, mannerism, euphuism, fustian, cacophony, words that break the teeth, words that dislocate the jaw, marinism, inelegant, graceless, ungraceful, harsh, abrupt, dry, stiff, cramped, formal, guinde, forced, labored, artificial, mannered, ponderous, awkward, uncourtly, unpolished, turgid, affected, euphuistic, barbarous, uncouth, grotesque, rude, crude, halting, offensive to ears polite, Spoken Language.

Vulgarity

N vulgarity, vulgarism, barbarism, Vandalism, Gothicism, mauvis gout, bad taste, gaucherie, awkwardness, want of tact, ill-breeding, courseness, indecorum, misbehavior, lowness, homeliness, low life, mauvais ton, rusticity, boorishness, brutality, rowdyism, blackguardism, ribaldry, slang, bad joke, mauvais plaisanterie, gaudiness, tawdriness, false ornament, finery, frippery, trickery, tinsel, gewgaw, clinquant, baroque, rococo, rough diamond, tomboy, hoyden, cub, unlicked cub, clown, Goth, Vandal, Boeotian, snob, cad, gent, parvenu, frump, dowdy, slattern, in bad taste vulgar, unrefined, coarse, indecorous, ribald, gross, unseemly, unbeseeming, unpresentable, contra bonos mores, ungraceful, dowdy, slovenly, ungenteel, shabby genteel, low, common, hoi polloi, uncourtly, uncivil, ill bred, ill mannered, underbred, ungentlemanly, ungentlemanlike, unladylike, unfeminine, wild, wild as an unbacked colt, untutored, unschooled (ignorant), unkempt, uncombed, untamed, unlicked, unpolished, uncouth, plebeian, incondite, heavy, rude, awkward, homely, homespun, home bred, provincial, countrified, rustic, boorish, clownish, savage, brutish, blackguard, rowdy, snobbish, barbarous, barbaric, Gothic, unclassical, doggerel, heathenish, tramontane, outlandish, uncultivated, Bohemian, obsolete, unfashionable, newfangled, odd, particular, affected, meretricious, extravagant, monstrous, horrid, shocking, gaudy, tawdry, overornamented, baroque, rococo, bedizened, tricked out, gingerbread, obtrusive.