Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To pronounce indistinctly.
  • transitive verb To talk about disparagingly or insultingly.
  • transitive verb To pass over lightly or carelessly; treat without due consideration.
  • transitive verb To glide over (a series of notes) smoothly without a break.
  • transitive verb To mark with a slur.
  • transitive verb Printing To blur or smear.
  • noun A disparaging remark; an aspersion.
  • noun A slurred utterance or sound.
  • noun A curved line connecting notes on a score to indicate that they are to be played or sung legato.
  • noun A passage played or sung in this manner.
  • noun Printing A smeared or blurred impression.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Mud; especially, thin, washy mud.
  • noun A mark or stain; a smear; hence, figuratively, a slight occasion of reproach.
  • noun A disparaging or slighting remark; an insinuation; an innuendo: as, he could never speak of him without a slur.
  • noun A trick; a cheat. See slur, intransitive verb, 2.
  • noun In vocal music, the combination of two or more tones of the music sung to a single syllable.
  • noun In musical notation, a curved mark connecting two or more notes that are to be performed to a single syllable, or without break.
  • noun . A slide or glide.
  • noun In printing, a blurred or doubled impression caused by a shake or uneven motion in the sheet.
  • noun In a knitting-machine, mechanism which travels on a bar called the slur-bar, and depresses the jack-sinkers in succession, sinking a loop of thread between every pair of needles.
  • To smear; soil by smearing with something; sully; contaminate; pollute; tarnish: often with over.
  • To disparage by insinuation or innuendo; depreciate; calumniate; traduce; asperse; speak slightingly of.
  • To pass lightly (over or through); treat lightly or slightingly; make little of: commonly with over.
  • To cheat, originally by slipping or sliding a die in a particular way: an old gambling term; hence, to trick or cheat in general.
  • To do (anything) in a careless manner; render obscure or indistinct by running together, as words in speaking.
  • 6, In music, to sing (two or more tones) to a single syllable, or perform in a legato manner. See slur, n., 4.
  • In printing, to blur or double, as an impression from type; mackle.
  • To slide; be moved or dragged along in a shuffling, negligent way.
  • To practise cheating by slipping a die out of the box so as not to let it turn; hence, to cheat in any way.
  • In music, to apply a slur to two or more notes.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To soil; to sully; to contaminate; to disgrace.
  • transitive verb To disparage; to traduce.
  • transitive verb To cover over; to disguise; to conceal; to pass over lightly or with little notice.
  • transitive verb rare To cheat, as by sliding a die; to trick.
  • transitive verb To pronounce indistinctly.
  • transitive verb (Mus.) To sing or perform in a smooth, gliding style; to connect smoothly in performing, as several notes or tones.
  • transitive verb (Print.) To blur or double, as an impression from type; to mackle.
  • noun A mark or stain; hence, a slight reproach or disgrace; a stigma; a reproachful intimation; an innuendo.
  • noun rare A trick played upon a person; an imposition.
  • noun (Mus.) A mark, thus [⌢ or ⌣], connecting notes that are to be sung to the same syllable, or made in one continued breath of a wind instrument, or with one stroke of a bow; a tie; a sign of legato.
  • noun In knitting machines, a contrivance for depressing the sinkers successively by passing over them.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An insult or slight.
  • noun music A set of notes that are played legato, without separate articulation.
  • noun music The symbol indicating a legato passage, written as an arc over the slurred notes (not to be confused with a tie).
  • noun obsolete A trick or deception.
  • noun In knitting machines, a device for depressing the sinkers successively by passing over them.
  • verb To insult or slight.
  • verb To run together; to articulate poorly.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Probably from Middle English sloor, mud.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English slore. Compare Old Norse slóðra ("to drag oneself along"). Cognate with Middle Low German sluren ("to trail in mud"). Related to dialect Norwegian sløra ("to be careless, to scamp, dawdle"), Danish sløre ("to wobble, be loose") (especially for wheels).

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  • From The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia:

    "In a knitting-machine, mechanism which travels on a bar called the slur-bar, and depresses the jack-sinkers in succession, sinking a loop of thread between every pair of needles."

    September 6, 2018