slither

English

Etymology

From Middle English slitheren, alteration of slideren (“to slither, creep”), from Old English slidrian (“to slip, slide, slither”), from Proto-West Germanic *slidrōn (“to slide, slither”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleydʰ- (“to slip”), equivalent to slide +‎ -er (frequentative suffix). Cognate with Dutch slidderen (“to slip, wriggle, slither”), German schlittern (“to slither, skid”). More at slide.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈslɪð.ə(ɹ)/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈslɪð.ɚ/
• Rhymes: -ɪðə(ɹ)

Verb

slither (third-person singular simple present slithers, present participle slithering, simple past and past participle slithered)

1. (intransitive) To move about smoothly and from side to side.
   • 2023 October 12, HarryBlank, “Fire in the Hole”, in SCP Foundation‎, archived from the original on 22 May 2024:

     She also had a map of the building, not that it was very large, and she'd memorized the layout. The guard station would be right around the corner, and there ought to be a counter about the height of a half-wall looking out over the corridor with only a bulletin board on the opposite wall. She crouched down, and slithered left.

2. (intransitive) To slide.
   • 2003, J. Flash, An American Savage:

     I bent down and with both hands I scooped up as much of this pissshit as I could. The green and brown clump felt like Jello as it dripped down all over my clothes. It was slithering through inbetween^[sic] my fingers.

Derived terms

• aslither
• slitherer
• slitherlink
• slithery
• Slytherin

 

Related terms

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *sleydʰ- (0 c, 8 e)

Translations

to move smoothly from side to side

Bulgarian: движа се като змия (dviža se kato zmija) Catalan: reptar (ca) Czech: plazit se, šoupnout se Finnish: kiemurrella (fi), luikerrella (fi), luikertaa (fi) French: ramper / glisser en ondulant Ido: reptar (io) Italian: strisciare (it) Portuguese: rastejar (pt), serpear, serpentear, serpentar, zigue-zaguear, ondear Scots: hirsel Serbo-Croatian: gmizati (sh) Spanish: reptar (es) Thai: เลื้อย (th) (lʉ́ai)

to slide — see also slide

Bulgarian: плъзгам се (plǎzgam se) Czech: klouzat se Finnish: valua (fi) French: glisser (fr), se faufiler (fr) German: schlittern (de), rutschen (de) Hungarian: csúszik (hu), siklik (hu), csúszkál (hu) Italian: scivolare (it) Portuguese: deslizar (pt) Spanish: deslizar (es), deslizarse (es)

Adjective

slither

1. (archaic) slithery; slippery

Noun

slither (uncountable)

1. A limestone rubble.
2. (nonstandard, see usage notes) A sliver.

Usage notes

The use of slither to mean sliver, which is prevalent especially in Britain (where th-fronting is becoming more and more prevalent), is considered by many to be an error, though at least one major dictionary merely labels it "informal" .

See also

• sliver

Anagrams

• Hirtles, Hitlers, Shitler, relisht