slabby

English

Etymology 1

slab (“mud, sludge”) +‎ -y

Adjective

slabby (comparative slabbier, superlative slabbiest)

1. Of a liquid: thick; viscous.
   • 1696, John Selden, “Pope”, in Table-Talk‎^[1], London: Jacob Tonson, page 127:

     The Pope in sending Relicks to Princes, does as Wenches do by their Wassels at New-years-tide, they present you with a Cup, and you must drink of a slabby stuff; but the meaning is, you must give them Moneys, ten times more than it is worth.

2. Of a surface: sloppy, slimy.
   • [1716], [John] Gay, “Book II. Of Walking the Streets by Day.”, in Trivia: Or, The Art of Walking the Streets of London, London: […] Bernard Lintott, […], →OCLC, page 27:

     When waggiſh Boys the ſtunted Beeſom ply, / To rid the ſlabby Pavement; paſs not by / E’er thou haſt held their Hands; ſome heedleſs Flirt / Will over-ſpread thy Calves with ſpatt’ring Dirt.

   • 1846, Charles Dickens, “Genoa and its Neighbourhood”, in Pictures from Italy, London: […] Bradbury & Evans, […], →OCLC, page 48:

     I went down into the garden, intended to be prim and quaint, with avenues, and terraces, and orange-trees, and statues, and water in stone basins; and everything was green, gaunt, weedy, straggling, under grown or over grown, mildewy, damp, redolent of all sorts of slabby, clammy, creeping, and uncomfortable life.

3. Rainy, wet. (of weather)
   • 1581, John Studley (translator), Hercules Oetaeus, Act I, in Seneca his Tenne Tragedies, Translated into Englysh, London: Thomas Marsh,^[2]

     To Virgo, Leo turnes the time, and in a reaking sweate.

     He buskling vp his burning Mane, doth dry the dropping south.

     And swallowes vp the slabby cloudes in fyry foming mouth.

   • 1676, John Evelyn, A Philosophical Discourse of Earth‎^[3], London: John Martyn, page 58:

     […] I am only to caution our labourer as to the present work, that he do not stir the ground in over-wet and slabby weather […]

Derived terms

• slabbily
• slabbiness

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “slabby”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Etymology 2

slab (“solid object that is large and flat”) +‎ -y

Adjective

slabby (comparative slabbier, superlative slabbiest)

1. Composed of slabs; resembling a slab or slabs; inelegant, cumbersome, clunky.
   • 1905, Robert W. Chambers, Iole‎^[4], New York: D. Appleton, page 3:

     Then he set up another shop an’ hired some of us ’round here to go an’ make them big, slabby art-chairs.

   • 1962, Richard McKenna, The Sand Pebbles‎^[5], New York: Harper & Row, Chapter:

     He was big and pink and slabby with muscle, but not very hairy, for a white man.

   • 2010 May 30, Euan Ferguson, “Hay’s unmissable (if you can get there...)”, in The Guardian:

     The papers were full yesterday morning, you see, of the iPad. […] a million fidget-fingered twits were salivating for the chance to show off their slabby electro-tablets […]

Noun

slabby (plural slabbies)

1. (New Zealand, informal) A worker who deals with timber in the form of slabs.
   • 1982, New Zealand. Arbitration Court, Awards, Agreements, Orders, and Decisions Made Under the Industrial Relations Act, the Apprentices Act, and Other Industrial Legislation for the Year ..., volume 82, number 3, page 2167:

     The employer shall supply the sawyer and tailer-out at breast bench, workers operating goose-saws, and slabbies with suitable leather aprons for use while so employed. When requested by the worker a suitable apron shall be supplied to timber stackers, lorry drivers, and machinists.

   • 2018, Kate De Goldi, Love, Charlie Mike:

     'My husband worked in a sawmill,' said Gran. […] 'And his brother. Slabbies, both of them. What sort of work was that for men with brains?'