slip

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To slide and lose your balance suddenly.

   She slipped on the wet floor and fell.

2. 2
   noun

   A small accident in which you slide and almost fall.

   I blamed my slip on the ice.

3. 3
   verb

   To put or move something quickly and quietly.

   I slipped some money into the waiter's hand.

4. 4
   noun

   A small piece of paper.

   She handed me a slip with the address written on it.

5. 5
   verb

   To get worse gradually.

   My grades have been slipping this term.

Multiword verbs with slip

• slip off Phrasal verb B1

  to remove an item of clothing quickly and easily

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Several unrelated words are spelled slip. The verb meaning to lose one’s footing or move out of position is probably Germanic and shares its root with slippery, slipper, and slipshod. Slip meaning a small piece of paper, a plant cutting, or a small, slender person probably comes from early Dutch and German slippe, “a cut, strip”; slip for a semiliquid substance is Old English, while the clothing term dates from the mid-18th century and refers to something easily slipped on.

From Middle English slyp, slep, slyppe, from Old English slyp, slyppe, slipa (“a viscous, slimy substance”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Proto-West Germanic *sleupan, from Proto-Germanic *sleupaną (“to slip, sneak”), possibly connected with Proto-Indo-European *slewb-, *slewbʰ- (“slip, slide”), from Proto-Indo-European *sel- (“to sneak, crawl”); or alternatively from Proto-Germanic *slippijaną (“to glide”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleyb- (“slimy; to glide”). Compare Old English slūpan (“to slip, glide”), Old English cūslyppe, cūsloppe (“cowslip”).

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary