slain

verb

past participle of slay

transitive : to kill violently, wantonly, or in great numbers

slay the enemy

This was the appearance of a dreadful epidemic which in that age, and long before and afterward, was wont to slay its hundreds and thousands on both sides of the Atlantic.—

Nathaniel Hawthorne

broadly : to strike down : kill

slay a dragon

"It's a lot easier to slay a vampire with a stake in the heart than it is to slay some of our demons that are in our heads." —

Rachel T. Hill

transitive informal : to delight or amuse immensely

slayed the audience

… [Seth Rogen] is currently slaying critics with Superbad, which he co-wrote with Evan Goldberg.—

Tanner Stransky

transitive + intransitive informal : to do something or perform exceptionally well or impressively : to be exceptionally impressive

From the Let Girls Learn initiative to her Vogue covers, [Yara Shahidi] slays it all.—

Rebecca Sun

Beyoncé did not come to this year's Grammy Awards just to slay, she came to make a statement.—

Jackie Fields

From the red carpet to her sure-to-be epic performance, one thing is for certain—she's gonna slay.—

Quinn Keaney

Choose the Right Synonym for slain

kill, slay, murder, assassinate, dispatch, execute mean to deprive of life.

kill merely states the fact of death caused by an agency in any manner.

killed in an accident

frost killed the plants

slay is a chiefly literary term implying deliberateness and violence but not necessarily motive.

slew thousands of the Philistines

murder specifically implies stealth and motive and premeditation and therefore full moral responsibility.

convicted of murdering a rival

assassinate applies to deliberate killing openly or secretly often for political motives.

terrorists assassinated the Senator

dispatch stresses quickness and directness in putting to death.

dispatched the sentry with one bullet

execute stresses putting to death as a legal penalty.

executed by lethal gas

Examples of slain in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Standing alongside firefighter’s gear that belonged to slain Trump rallygoer Corey Comperatore, Trump claimed that divine intervention saved him from also being killed in the attack at a Pennsylvania campaign rally last weekend. —

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News, 19 July 2024 Hundreds paid their final respects Wednesday to slain Birmingham Firefighter Jordan Melton, who was gunned down while on duty two weeks ago at Station 9. —

Carol Robinson | Crobinson@al.com, al, 26 July 2023