slender
adjective
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L340504 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈslɛndə/ / /ˈslɛndɚ/
adj
Etymology: From Middle English slendre, sclendre, from Old French esclendre (“thin, slender”), from Middle Dutch slinder (“thin, lank”), from Proto-Germanic *slindraz (“sliding, slippery”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleydʰ- (“to slip”). Cognate with Bavarian Schlenderling (“that which dangles”), German schlendern (“to saunter, stroll”), Dutch slidderen, slinderen (“to wriggle, creep like a serpent”), Low German slindern (“to slide on ice”). More at slide, slither.
- Thin; slim.
“A rod is a long slender pole used for angling.”
“She is very slender.”
- Meagre; deficient.
“Being a person of slender means, he was unable to afford any luxuries.”
“The grounds for the conjecture are somewhat slender.”
- Palatalized.
noun
Etymology: From the character of Abraham Slender in Shakespeare's play The Merry Wives of Windsor.
- A simple country gentleman.
“[…] the fantastic pilgrimages imposed on the "Cousin Slenders" of the world by their more facetious comrades […]”
“[…] here also, behind the pillars, dark villains like Varney, and assassins like Iago, watched the simple country Slenders and the besotted Master Mathews, themselves grimly observed by honest water-carriers like Ben Jonson's Cob and Shakespeare's Adam.”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English slendre, sclendre, from Old French esclendre (“thin, slender”), from Middle Dutch slinder (“thin, lank”), from Proto-Germanic *slindraz (“sliding, slippery”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleydʰ- (“to slip”). Cognate with Bavarian Schlenderling (“that which dangles”), German schlendern (“to saunter, stroll”), Dutch slidderen, slinderen (“to wriggle, creep like a serpent”), Low German slindern (“to slide on ice”). More at slide, slither.
- To attenuate.
“Rolled-up sleeves bared her strong forearms, which slendered down when they came to the wrists and hands.”