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to slice

to slice

30 6.9
To hit a ball so it spins and curves away, often in golf or tennis
  • verb
  • /slaɪs/
  • Jargon
translation icon : golpear con efecto cortado
  • If you slice the golf ball, it will veer off to the right instead of going straight.

Examples

  • If you slice your drives real bad, that's about where it is.

  • His approach shot sliced into the woods...

  • The way you can deliberately slice the ball, you should have no trouble at all.

  • The freshman spins past the defender, slicing to his left to the foul line.

  • Again, this is how baseballs curve, golf balls soar, tennis balls slice, and how UFOs traverse the Galaxy.

  • He tried to slice the tennis ball, causing it to curve away from his opponent.

  • During the match, she expertly sliced the ball, making it spin sharply away from the net.

Idioms

A peaceful small-town feeling with friendly neighbors like in old TV shows

A fact stays true whatever way you look at it

Phrasal Verbs

Cut or move quickly and smoothly through air and water

9 1.5

To cut something into thin slices

Move a sharp object into something to cut it

Compounds

1 1.0

The final piece of food that remains when others are gone

2.8

A wide flat kitchen tool for lifting, turning and serving fish or other foods

slice bar
  • Archaic
9.9

A heavy iron bar used to loosen and remove hard burned material from a furnace

How Curved

overspin
  • Specialized
6.3
to slice
  • Jargon
30 6.9
cut
11 5.1

Surface Forms

slice infinitive
sliced past
sliced past participle
slicing present participle
slices third person singular

Etymology

A helpful way to remember the sports sense of slice is to imagine the club or racket giving the ball a small 'cut' so it spins away, just like a slight cut on the ball's path. That is why to slice in tennis or golf means to hit the ball so it spins and curves from its expected line.