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What is "slew"

Crossword clues for slew

slew
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
slew
I.verb
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ He fumbled his way into the car and sent it slewing toward the road, wipers scything at the rain.
▪ Melanie slewed round on her knees to watch him.
▪ The cars slew to a halt, blocking the traffic.
II.noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ It may embody a slew of things.
▪ Online services like Napster helped generate interest in a slew of new computer products in recent months.
▪ The festive gala features a slew of activities for all ages.
▪ They had lost a slew of close games, were getting minimal production from their frontcourt and sporadic play from the perimeter.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
slew

Slue \Slue\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Slued; p. pr. & vb. n. Sluing.] [Prov. E. slew to turn round, Scot. to lean or incline to a side; cf. Icel. sn?a to turn, bend.] [Written also slew.]

  1. (Naut.) To turn about a fixed point, usually the center or axis, as a spar or piece of timber; to turn; -- used also of any heavy body.

  2. In general, to turn about; to twist; -- often used reflexively and followed by round. [Colloq.]

    They laughed, and slued themselves round.
    --Dickens.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
slew

"swampy place," 1708, North American variant of slough.

slew

"to turn, swing, twist," 1834, earlier slue (1769), a nautical word, of unknown origin. Slewed (1801) is old nautical slang for "drunk." Slew-foot "clumsy person who walks with feet turned out" is from 1896.

slew

"large number," 1839, from Irish sluagh "a host, crowd, multitude," from Celtic and Balto-Slavic *sloug- "help, service" (see slogan).

Wiktionary
slew

Etymology 1 n. (context US English) A large amount. Etymology 2

n. 1 The act, or process of slaying. 2 A device used for slaying. 3 A change of position. vb. 1 (context transitive nautical English) To rotate or turn something about its axis. 2 (context transitive English) To veer a vehicle. 3 (context transitive English) To insert extra ticks or skip some ticks of a clock to slowly correct its time. 4 (context intransitive English) To pivot. 5 (context intransitive English) To skid. 6 (context transitive rail transport English) to move something (usually a railway line) sideways 7 (context transitive British slang English) To make a public mockery of someone through insult or wit. Etymology 3

vb. (en-simple pastslay) Etymology 4

n. A wet place; a river inlet.

WordNet
slay

  1. v. kill intentionally and with premeditation; "The mafia boss ordered his enemies murdered" [syn: murder, hit, dispatch, bump off, polish off, remove]

  2. [also: slew, slain]

slew

  1. v. turn sharply; change direction abruptly; "The car cut to the left at the intersection"; "The motorbike veered to the right" [syn: swerve, sheer, curve, trend, veer, slue, cut]

  2. move obliquely or sideways, usually in an uncontrolled manner; "the wheels skidded against the sidewalk" [syn: skid, slip, slue, slide]

slew

n. (often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent; "a batch of letters"; "a deal of trouble"; "a lot of money"; "he made a mint on the stock market"; "it must have cost plenty" [syn: batch, deal, flock, good deal, great deal, hatful, heap, lot, mass, mess, mickle, mint, muckle, peck, pile, plenty, pot, quite a little, raft, sight, spate, stack, tidy sum, wad, whole lot, whole slew]

slew

See slay

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Slew (spacecraft)

Slew and slewing are a terms which can refer to a spacecraft's orientation or movement in reference to a plane or fixed position such as Earth, the Sun, another celestial body or other point in space.

During space flight, a craft's attitude must be controlled for reasons dependent upon the craft's mission. Keeping a spacecraft slewed properly is vital toward ensuring that its high-gain antenna remains oriented toward Earth for sending and receiving data and commands. Additionally with many craft, keeping their solar arrays angled toward the Sun optimizes their power absorption and reduces the craft's reliance on internal power systems. Thermal heating and cooling of a craft and its subsystems can also be controlled by the craft's orientation. Cameras or other sensing equipment that are fixed into position upon the craft need to be aimed by slewing the craft. A spacecraft can either be spin stabilized or 3-axis stabilized to maintain proper orientation.

For spin-stabilized spacecraft, slewing is accomplished by applying a (significant) torque to the spacecraft, in general by operating a thruster in synchronous or asynchronous direction to its spin to adjust its spin rate. This results in a precession and slews for this kind of spacecraft are therefore also called "precession manoeuvre."

The slew of 3-axis stabilized spacecraft is typically in closed loop control with thrusters or electrically-powered reaction wheels maintaining or altering the craft's attitude based on sensor measurements. A typical example is a space telescope that should be turned to observe a new celestial object. But also for 3-axis stabilized spacecraft for which the normal attitude is not inertially fixed the spacecraft is said to make a slew if the attitude is changed in another way and with another, mostly higher, rate than when in the basic attitude control mode. An example is the Magellan probe that once per orbit interrupted the scanning of the Venus surface making a large turn to direct its high gain antenna to the Earth for data transmission.

Usage examples of "slew".

First, to the will of those who slew Him: and in this respect He was not a victim: for the slayers of Christ are not accounted as offering a sacrifice to God, but as guilty of a great crime: a similitude of which was borne by the wicked sacrifices of the Gentiles, in which they offered up men to idols.

Typhon, his brother, slew him when the sun was in the sign of the Scorpion, that is to say, at the Autumnal Equinox.

But before the Mexicans murdered the mother of Geronimo and his wife and children, and the soldiers of the white-yes slew the Apaches they had invited to have food with them, and before Mangas Colorado was treacherously murdered, did the Apaches have reason to hate the Mexicans and the white-eyes?

One of the Royal Archers, an outstanding markswoman, slew three of the shotmen attending the mangonels with swift arrows from her longbow.

I say to the Emperor--your wife slew your friend that she might be your wife, your friend Melchoir of Brabant--you loved him better than you loved the woman--will you not avenge him now?

With a visible effort he slews the microfiche reader hood around so that I can see the screen, then taps one bony finger on a mechanical keypress.

It would be refining too much, perhaps, even considering his monomania, to hint that his vindictiveness towards the White Whale might have possibly extended itself in some degree to all sperm whales, and that the more monsters he slew by so much the more he multiplied the chances that each subsequently encountered whale would prove to be the hated one he hunted.

Now Panda reigns, the last of the sons of Senzangakona, my enemy, Panda the Fool, and I hold my hand from Panda because he tried to save the life of a child of mine whom Chaka slew.

The murderers spilled into the countryside where the disease had trickled but not entirely blanketing that parish with pandemic, just a smattering that somehow randomly slew different men.

So that herd of twelve horses might spend a whole day thundering up and down the increasingly sloppy and treacherous field, with the players bellowing and cursing and the spectators roaring encouragement, and the sticks waving and crashing and often splintering, and the churned-up terrain plastering the players and horses and watchers and musicians, and the riders falling from their saddles and trying to scurry to safety and being cheerfully ridden down by their fellows, and, toward the end of the day, when the field was a mere swamp of mud and slime, the horses also slipping and slewing and falling down.

As mayor of New York, Giuliani refused to yield to the left on a slew of other hot-button issues, aggressively opposing affirmative action administrators, pornographic artists, Legal Aid lawyers, useless government employees, and other key Democratic constituencies.

At the very last second Porta gave a despairing wrench at the wheel and the sled slewed away in the opposite direction, but we had no time to sit back and applaud, nor to mop our brows with relief, nor to check our casualties, for the second sled was approaching fast.

Therefore, the murderer slew Purling, and went to the meeting afterward.

In her dreams, Caradoc slew both Scapula and the pied decurion and rode back to her with their heads wrapped in his cloak as a gift.

And standing between them to be seen by all, and first looking upon both with eyes of pity, he drew from the folds of his selham a long knife such as the Reefians wear, and taking his father by his white hair he slew him and cast his body down the rocks.