slender
adjectiveverbattested in dialogue
- United Kingdom//ˈslɛndə//
- United States//ˈslɛndɚ//
Thin; slim.
adjective
- 1
Thin; slim.
A rod is a long slender pole used for angling.
She is very slender.
Sepia Delft tiles surrounded the fireplace, their crudely drawn Biblical scenes in faded cyclamen blending with the pinkish pine, while above them, instead of a mantelshelf, there was an archway high enough to form a balcony with slender balusters and a tapestry-hung wall behind.
Smooth and slender and naked, Mary Rittersdorf faced her husband.
- 2
figurativeMeagre; deficient.
Being a person of slender means, he was unable to afford any luxuries.
The grounds for the conjecture are somewhat slender.
The slender service between Ellesmere Port and Helsby has been added, too.
- 3
Palatalized.
Etymology
From Middle English slendre, sclendre, from Old French esclendre (“thin, slender”), from Middle Dutch slinder (“thin, lank”), from Proto-Germanic *slindraz (“sliding, slippery”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleydʰ- (“to slip”). Cognate with Bavarian Schlenderling (“that which dangles”), German schlendern (“to saunter, stroll”), Dutch slidderen, slinderen (“to wriggle, creep like a serpent”), Low German slindern (“to slide on ice”). More at slide, slither.
verb
- 1
To attenuate.
Rolled-up sleeves bared her strong forearms, which slendered down when they came to the wrists and hands.
Forms
- comparative
- slenderer, more slender
- superlative
- slenderest, most slender
- past tense
- slendered
- past participle
- slendered
- present participle
- slendering
- third person singular
- slenders