slab

Etymology 1

From Middle English sclabbe, slabbe, of uncertain origin; possibly from *slap, related to dialectal slappel (“portion, piece”), along with slape (“slippery”), sleip (“smooth piece of timber”), borrowed through Old Norse sleipr from Proto-Germanic *slaipaz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)leyb-. See also Norwegian sleip (“slippery”) and Icelandic sleipur.

noun

1. A large, flat piece of solid material; a solid object that is large and flat.
   There were no windows in the inn. They were not required, since the interstices between the slabs suffered the wind, the rain, and the light of day to penetrate simultaneously. 1859, John Lang, Botany Bay, or, True Tales of Early Australia, page 155
   The pier? You mean those few sodden logs tied together and that dingy slab of rough concrete. 2010, Ryan Humphreys, The Flirtations of Dan Harris, page 73
2. A paving stone; a flagstone.
3. (Australia) A carton containing 24 cans (chiefly of beer).
   The Australians murder a few slabs of beer and the New Zealanders murder a few vowels. 2001, Les Carlyon, Gallipoli, page 8
   The older man bought a slab of Coca-Cola at the counter and carried it out ahead of the younger man. 2002, Alex Miller, Journey to the Stone Country, Allen & Unwin, published 2003, page 88
   2008, Diem Vo, Family Life, Alice Pung (editor), page 156, However, unlike in Ramsay Street, there were never any cups of tea or bickies served. Instead, each family unit came armed with a slab of beer.
   Common 375-ml cans are called tinnies, and can be bought in 24-can slabs for discounted prices. 2010, Holly Smith, Perth, Western Australia & the Outback, Hunter Publishing, unnumbered page
   One essential part of the strategy for selling regionally identified beers beyond their borders was the selling of slabs — a package of four six-packs of stubbies or cans — for discounted prices interstate. 2009, Ross Fitzgerald, Trevor Jordan, Under the Influence: A History of Alcohol in Australia, published 2011, unnumbered page
4. An outside piece taken from a log or timber when sawing it into boards, planks, etc.
5. (nautical) The slack part of a sail.
6. (US, slang) A large, luxury pre-1980 General Motors vehicle, particularly a Buick, Oldsmobile, or Cadillac.
   After a few loops around the park, some drivers—most of them Black and Latino men in their twenties and thirties driving customized lowriders, bright, candy-colored slabs, and jacked-up trucks with flashy chrome rims—packed into a nearby middle school parking lot. 2021-03-23, Peter Holley, “They Just Moved Into an Austin Neighborhood. Now They Want to End One of Its Traditions.”, in Texas Monthly
7. (surfing) A very large wave.
   After being towed into a massive slab, Dorian dropped down the face and caught a rail, putting him in a near-impossible situation. 2009, Bruce Boal, The Surfing Yearbook, SurfersVillage, page 31
   In August 2000 he successfully rode a slab of unfathomable power at Teahupo′o. 2011, Douglas Booth, Surfing: The Ultimate Guide, page 95
8. (programming) The amount by which a cache can grow or shrink, used in memory allocation.
9. (geology) Part of a tectonic plate that is being, or has been, subducted.
   Being driven by the gravitational force, the subducting Pacific slab continues to sink down to the boundary between the upper and lower mantle […] 2015, Dapeng Zhao, Multiscale Seismic Tomography, Springer, page 72
10. (construction) A poured-concrete foundation for a building.
11. (geometry) A region between two parallel lines in the Euclidean plane, or between two parallel planes in three-dimensional Euclidean space, or between two hyperplanes in higher dimensions.

verb

1. (transitive) To make something into a slab.

Etymology 2

Compare Goidelic and Irish slaib (“mud, mire left on a river strand”), and English slop (“puddle”).

noun

1. (archaic) Mud, sludge.

adj

1. (archaic) Thick; viscous.

Etymology 3

Acronym of Slow, Loud And Bangin'. This term been popularized through the southern rap genre of hip-hop, most notably by rappers such as Paul Wall, Chamillionaire, Lil' Keke, and others.

noun

1. (Southern US, slang) A car that has been modified with equipment such as loudspeakers, lights, special paint, hydraulics, and other accessories.
   Pull me over, try to check my slab 2005, Chamillionaire (featuring Krayzie Bone), "Ridin'", The Sound of Revenge
   I'mma swang, I'mma swing my slab lean to the left 2006, Trae (featuring Pimp C and Big Hawk), "Swang", Restless
   All three of them recognized who the Lexus' belonged to so he parked his slab and they cocked their guns. 2012, Bobby Austin, By All Mean$, AuthorHouse, published 2012, page 56

Etymology 4

noun

1. (British dialect, obsolete) A bird, the wryneck.

Etymology 5

From syllable.

noun

1. (computing) A sequence of 12 adjacent bits, serving as a byte in some computers.