slope

From aslope (adjective, adverb).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /sloʊp/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sləʊp/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -əʊp

A sign indicating a road with a 25% gradient slope in Elenith, Wales

slope (plural slopes)

1. An area of ground that tends evenly upward or downward.

   I had to climb a small slope to get to the site.

2. The degree to which a surface tends upward or downward.

   The road has a very sharp downward slope at that point.

3. (mathematics) The ratio of the vertical and horizontal distances between two points on a line; zero if the line is horizontal, undefined if it is vertical.

   The slope of this line is 0.5

4. (mathematics) The slope of the line tangent to a curve at a given point.

   The slope of a parabola increases linearly with x.

5. The angle a roof surface makes with the horizontal, expressed as a ratio of the units of vertical rise to the units of horizontal length (sometimes referred to as run).

   The slope of an asphalt shingle roof system should be 4:12 or greater.

6. (vulgar, highly offensive, ethnic slur) A person of Chinese or other East Asian descent.

• (area of ground that tends evenly upward or downward): bank, embankment, gradient, hill, incline
• (degree to which a surface tends upward or downward): gradient
• (mathematics): first derivative, gradient
• (offensive: Chinese person): Chinaman, Chink

slope (third-person singular simple present slopes, present participle sloping, simple past and past participle sloped)

1. (intransitive) To tend steadily upward or downward.

   The road slopes sharply down at that point.

   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 23, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     If the afternoon was fine they strolled together in the park, very slowly, and with pauses to draw breath wherever the ground sloped upward. The slightest effort made the patient cough.

2. (transitive) To form with a slope; to give an oblique or slanting direction to; to incline or slant.

   to slope the ground in a garden;   to slope a piece of cloth in cutting a garment

3. (colloquial, usually followed by a preposition) To try to move surreptitiously.

   I sloped in through the back door, hoping my boss wouldn't see me.

4. (military) To hold a rifle at a slope with forearm perpendicular to the body in front holding the butt, the rifle resting on the shoulder.

   The order was given to "slope arms".

• ski slope
• slippery slope
• Slope County
• sloping

slope (comparative more slope, superlative most slope)

1. (obsolete) Sloping.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Francis Bacon

     A bank not steep, but gently slope.

   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     Down the slope hills.

slope (comparative more slope, superlative most slope)

1. (obsolete) slopingly

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)

• LEPOs, Poles, S-pole, eslop, lopes, olpes, poles, spole

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slope

1. (archaic) singular past subjunctive of sluipen
2. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of slopen

• sloep, spoel