slog

See also: slóg, sløg, and слог

English

Etymology

Probably a variation of slug (“to hit very hard”) or slough.

Possibly related to slag, seen in the North Germanic languages, in association with the third verb and second noun definition.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /slɒɡ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /slɑɡ/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒɡ

Noun

slog (countable and uncountable, plural slogs)

1. (countable, uncountable, chiefly British, Australia and Canada) A long, tedious walk or march.
2. (countable, uncountable, chiefly British, Australia and Canada, by extension) A hard, persistent effort, session of work, or period.
   • 1996 February 11, Michael Gorra, “Tunnel Vision”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     It is as if Mr. Faulks had bled his own prose white, draining it of emotion in order to capture the endless enervating slog of war.

   • 2017 November 14, Phil McNulty, “England 0 – 0 Brazil”, in BBC Sport‎^[2]:

     England's experimental line-up will have realised early on that this would be a long, hard slog against the multi-talented Brazilians with great strength in their starting line-up and on the bench.

   • 2022 February 12, Danny Westneat, “The reason voters see past the terrible headlines with Seattle schools”, in The Seattle Times‎^[3]:

     There, despite the long slog of the pandemic and all the distracting dramas at headquarters, the schools themselves have mostly kept it together.

   • 2025 June 25, Lee Chong Ming, quoting William Alsup and Dario Amodei, “Anthropic cut up millions of used books to train Claude — and downloaded over 7 million pirated ones too, a judge said”, in Business Insider‎^[4]:

     Alsup wrote that Anthropic preferred to “steal” books to “avoid ‘legal/practice/business slog,’ as cofounder and CEO Dario Amodei put it.”

3. (countable) A book or other media that is difficult to get through due to dullness, density, or lack of narrative momentum.
4. (countable, cricket) An aggressive shot played with little skill.

Translations

Translations

• Spanish: tráfago (es) m

hard persistent effort, session of work

• Czech: dřina (cs) f, lopota (cs) f, makačka (cs) f
• German: Schufterei (de) f

Verb

slog (third-person singular simple present slogs, present participle slogging, simple past and past participle slogged)

1. (intransitive) To walk slowly or doggedly, encountering resistance.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:walk

   • 1961 July, J. Geoffrey Todd, “Impressions of railroading in the United States: Part Two”, in Trains Illustrated, page 419:

     The leading engine was one of the Class Y6 2-8-8-2 compound articulateds, [...] The stack noise of one of these great brutes slogging up a grade was quite unforgettable.

   • 2014, Paul Salopek, Blessed. Cursed. Claimed., National Geographic (December 2014)[5]

     A miraculous desert rain. We slog, dripping, into As Safi, Jordan. We drive the sodden mules through wet streets. To the town’s only landmark. To the “Museum at the Lowest Place on Earth.”

2. (intransitive, by extension) To work slowly and deliberately at a tedious task.
3. To strike something with a heavy blow, especially a ball with a bat.

Translations

to walk slowly, encountering resistance

• Bulgarian: влача се (vlača se)
• Danish: ase, okse (da), traske
• Finnish: raahustaa, löntystellä (fi)
• German: schleppen (de) (reflexive), quälen (de) (reflexive), schleppend bewegen (reflexive)
• Italian: arrancare (it), camminare a fatica
• Polish: taszczyć się
• Russian: идти́ (ru) impf (idtí) с (s) трудом (trudom) (idtí s trudóm)

to work slowly and deliberately at a tedious task

• Bulgarian: бъхтя се (bǎhtja se)
• Czech: pachtit se impf, dřít se impf, mořit se impf
• German: schuften (de), plagen (de) (reflexive), abmühen (de) (reflexive), abplagen (reflexive)
• Russian: вка́лывать (ru) (vkályvatʹ)
• Spanish: pencar (Spain, colloquial)

to strike something with a heavy blow, especially a ball with a bat

• Bulgarian: удрям силно (udrjam silno)
• Finnish: kumauttaa (fi), iskeä (fi), huitaista
• German: verprügeln (de), prügeln (de)

Derived terms

noun and verb

• footslog
• slog away
• slog one's guts out
• slog-sweep

Anagrams

• -logs, Glos, Glos., logs

Danish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sloːˀ/, [ˈsl̥oˀ]

Verb

slog

1. past tense of slå

Irish

Alternative forms

• sloig

Etymology

From Old Irish sluicid, from Proto-Celtic *slunketi (compare Welsh llyncu and Breton lonkañ).

Pronunciation

• (Munster) IPA^(key): /sˠl̪ˠɔɡ/; /sˠl̪ˠoɟ/ (corresponding to the form sloig)
• (Connacht) IPA^(key): /sˠl̪ˠuɡ/; /ˈsl̪ˠiɟ/ (corresponding to the form sloig)
• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /sˠl̪ˠɞɡ/

Verb

slog (present analytic slogann, future analytic slogfaidh, verbal noun slogadh, past participle slogtha)

1. to swallow

Conjugation

Conjugation of slog (first conjugation – A)

indicative	singular			plural			direct relative	autonomous
	first	second	third	first	second	third
present	slogaim	slogann tú; slogair†	slogann sé, sí	slogaimid; slogann muid	slogann sibh	slogann siad; slogaid†	a shlogann; a shlogas	slogtar
past	shlog mé; shlogas	shlog tú; shlogais	shlog sé, sí	shlogamar; shlog muid	shlog sibh; shlogabhair	shlog siad; shlogadar	a shlog	slogadh
past habitual	shlogainn / slogainn‡	shlogtá / slogtá‡	shlogadh sé, sí / slogadh sé, sí‡	shlogaimis; shlogadh muid / slogaimis‡; slogadh muid‡	shlogadh sibh / slogadh sibh‡	shlogaidís; shlogadh siad / slogaidís‡; slogadh siad‡	a shlogadh	shlogtaí / slogtaí‡
	singular			plural			direct relative	autonomous
	first	second	third	first	second	third
future	slogfaidh mé; slogfad	slogfaidh tú; slogfair†	slogfaidh sé, sí	slogfaimid; slogfaidh muid	slogfaidh sibh	slogfaidh siad; slogfaid†	a shlogfaidh; a shlogfas	slogfar
conditional	shlogfainn / slogfainn‡	shlogfá / slogfá‡	shlogfadh sé, sí / slogfadh sé, sí‡	shlogfaimis; shlogfadh muid / slogfaimis‡; slogfadh muid‡	shlogfadh sibh / slogfadh sibh‡	shlogfaidís; shlogfadh siad / slogfaidís‡; slogfadh siad‡	a shlogfadh	shlogfaí / slogfaí‡
subjunctive	singular			plural			direct relative	autonomous
	first	second	third	first	second	third
present	go sloga mé; go slogad†	go sloga tú; go slogair†	go sloga sé, sí	go slogaimid; go sloga muid	go sloga sibh	go sloga siad; go slogaid†	—	go slogtar
past	dá slogainn	dá slogtá	dá slogadh sé, sí	dá slogaimis; dá slogadh muid	dá slogadh sibh	dá slogaidís; dá slogadh siad	—	dá slogtaí
imperative	singular			plural			direct relative	autonomous
	first	second	third	first	second	third
—	slogaim	slog	slogadh sé, sí	slogaimis	slogaigí; slogaidh†	slogaidís	—	slogtar
past participle	slogtha
verbal noun	slogadh

^† archaic or dialect form
^‡ dependent form

Derived terms

• slogach
• slogaide
• slogaire
• slogóg

Descendants

• → Yola: slug

Mutation

Mutated forms of slog

radical	lenition	eclipsis
slog	shlog after an, tslog	not applicable

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Modern Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Further reading

• Dinneen, Patrick S. (1904), “slogaim”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, 1st edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, page 657
• Dinneen, Patrick S. (1904), “sloigim”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, 1st edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, page 657
• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “slog”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN

Old English

Verb

slōg

1. first/third-person singular preterite indicative of slēan

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *ložiti. First attested in the 16th century.

Noun

slȍg m inan (Cyrillic spelling сло̏г)

1. syllable
2. stack, pile

Declension

Declension of slog

	singular	plural
nominative	slog	slogovi
genitive	sloga	slogova
dative	slogu	slogovima
accusative	slog	slogove
vocative	slogu / slože	slogovi
locative	slogu	slogovima
instrumental	slogom	slogovima

Swedish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sluːɡ/

Verb

slog

1. past indicative of slå