Return Home dresses bodies in short cotton-bunting gowns and slippers made specially for its services.—Jeanette Marantos, Los Angeles Times, 22 May 2024 On the table, a vase is filled with seashells that look like tiny ballet slippers.—Angela Roberts, Baltimore Sun, 21 Mar. 2024 Bridgerton Enchanting Floral Bee Slippers Nothing says luxury like a soft pair of slippers, and this enchanting style is reminiscent of the characters’ jewel-toned wardrobes.—Ali Faccenda, Peoplemag, 16 May 2024 There are also flying monkeys, yellow bricks, silver slippers and plenty of pink and green.—Rebecca Rubin, Variety, 15 May 2024 See all Example Sentences for slipper
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'slipper.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Adjective
Middle English slipir, sliper "causing something to slide or slip, deceitful," going back to Old English slipor, sliper, going back to Germanic *slip-ra- (whence also Old High German sleffar "sloping downward"), adjective derivative from the base of Germanic *sleipan- (strong verb) "to slide, slip" (whence Middle Dutch slīpen "to smooth, polish, sharpen," Middle Low German, "to glide, sink, slip," Old High German slīfan "to slide, pass away, decline"), of uncertain origin
Note:
The adjective slipper has been effectively replaced by its derivative slippery, though the former was in existence in dialect late enough to be noticed by the Survey of English Dialects, which recorded it in Devon and Cornwall (see Survey of English Dialects: The Dictionary and Grammar, Routledge, 1994, s.v.). — The Germanic verb has been compared with Greek olibrón, glossed by Hesychius with olisthērón "slippery," though the assumption of an Indo-European etymon *h3slib-ro-, with both *b and a laryngeal preceding a sibilant, seems questionable. Parallel to *sleipan- is a verb *sleupan- "to creep, glide," which has been explained as a secondary formation based on near-synonymous *sleuban- (see slip entry 5, sleeve). As all these bases are ultimately of phonesthemic origin and can presumably be reshaped by variation of phonesthemic origin, it is difficult to disentangle inheritance from innovation. Compare slip entry 1.
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