Skip to content

sling

noun

  1. suspended chair, bed, or hammock, made of a framework connected to hanging straps or rope
  2. type of strap or harness designed to allow a shooter to conveniently carry a firearm on their body
  3. item of climbing equipment consisting of a tied or sewn loop of webbing
  4. ranged weapon
L27110 on Wikidata ↗

verb

  1. to throw, cast, hurl in some direction
L27111 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˈslɪŋ/

noun

Etymology: From a shortening of spiderling.

  1. A young or infant spider, such as one raised in captivity.

verb

Etymology: From Middle English slynge (noun), slyngen (verb), probably from Old Norse slyngja, slyngva (“to hurl”), from Proto-Germanic *slingwaną (“to worm, twist”) or compare Old English slingan (“to wind, twist”), from the same source. Compare German schlingen (“to swing, wind, twist”), Danish and Norwegian slynge), from Proto-Indo-European *slenk- (“to turn, twist”) (compare Welsh llyngyr (“worms, maggots”), Lithuanian sliñkti (“to crawl like a snake”), Latvian slìkt (“to sink”)).

  1. To throw with a circular or arcing motion.

    “Everyone could sling stones at an hairbreadth, and not miss.”

    “slings a broken rock aloft in air”

  2. To throw with a sling.
  3. To pass a rope around (a cask, gun, etc.) preparatory to attaching a hoisting or lowering tackle.
  4. To hang or stow (a tool or other equipment or supplies) so that the object is ready to deploy.
  5. To sell, peddle, or distribute (often illicitly, e.g. drugs, sex, etc.).

    “You may know a lot about chemistry, man, but you don't know jack about slinging dope.”