slant

Late Middle English, from a variant of the earlier form dialectical slent, from Old Norse or another North Germanic source, cognate with Old Norse slent, Swedish slinta (“to slip”), Norwegian slenta (“to fall on the side”), from Proto-Germanic *slintaną. Probably influenced by aslant.

• IPA^(key): /ˈslænt/

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• Hyphenation: slant
• Rhymes: -ænt

slant (plural slants)

1. A slope; an incline, inclination.

   The house was built on a bit of a slant and was never quite level.

2. A sloped surface or line.
3. (mining) A run: a heading driven diagonally between the dip and strike of a coal seam.
4. (typography) Synonym of slash ⟨ / ⟩, particularly in its use to set off pronunciations from other text.
   • 1965, Dmitri A. Borgmann, Language on Vacation, page 240:

     Initial inquiries among professional typists uncover names like slant, slant line, slash, and slash mark. Examination of typing instruction manuals discloses additional names such as diagonal and diagonal mark, and other sources provide the designation oblique.

5. An oblique movement or course.
6. (biology) A sloping surface in a culture medium.
7. A pan with a sloped bottom used for holding paintbrushes.
8. A container or surface bearing shallow sloping areas to hold watercolors.
9. (US, obsolete) A sarcastic remark; shade, an indirect mocking insult.
10. (slang) An opportunity, particularly to go somewhere.
11. (Australia, slang) A crime committed for the purpose of being apprehended and transported to a major settlement.
12. (originally US) A point of view, an angle; a bias.

    It was a well written article, but it had a bit of a leftist slant.

13. (US) A look, a glance.
14. (US, ethnic slur, derogatory) A person with slanting eyes, particularly an East Asian.

• (typography): See slash

• downslant
• slant bar
• slant height
• slant line
• slant of wind
• slant rhyme
• slant sight

• slent

slant (third-person singular simple present slants, present participle slanting, simple past and past participle slanted)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To lean, tilt or incline.

   If you slant the track a little more, the marble will roll down it faster.

   • Dodsley

     On the side of yonder slanting hill

2. (transitive) To bias or skew.

   The group tends to slant its policies in favor of the big businesses it serves.

3. (Scotland, intransitive) To lie or exaggerate.

• aslant
• slent

slant

1. Sloping; oblique; slanted.
   • 2015, Michael Z. Williamson, A Long Time Until Now

     By the eighth day, Alexander and Caswell had lashed together a hut with a slant roof […]

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.

• lants