slut

[ sluht ]
/ slʌt /

noun

Disparaging and Offensive. a sexually promiscuous woman, or a woman who behaves or dresses in an overtly sexual way.
Informal. a person with a seemingly insatiable but often undiscerning desire to do or have something specified: guilty of being a shoe slut; a book slut, reading five books at once.
Archaic.
  1. a prostitute; harlot.
  2. an immoral or dissolute woman.
  3. a dirty, slovenly woman.

Origin of slut

1375–1425; late Middle English slutte; compare dial. slut mud, Norwegian (dial.) slutr sleet, impure liquid

historical usage of slut

Slut first appeared in the written language in 1402, according to the Oxford English Dictionary , that great repository of language information. At that time, slut meant roughly what one sense of slattern means today: a slovenly, untidy woman or girl. It also apparently meant “kitchen maid” (”She is a cheerful slut who keeps the pots scrubbed and the fires hot.”). By the end of the 15th century, the sense “a woman given to immoral or improper conduct” had come into use, but this meaning is not current today. Interestingly, slattern also developed the meaning "prostitute, harlot." Some feminists have reclaimed the word slut and use it to mean a sexually liberated woman.

Example sentences from the Web for slut

  • Then suspecting that she was shut up with a gallant, he struck great blows upon the door and began to shout 'Slut!

    Penguin Island |Anatole France

British Dictionary definitions for slut

slut
/ (slʌt) /

noun

derogatory a dirty slatternly woman
derogatory an immoral woman
archaic a female dog

Derived forms of slut

sluttish, adjective sluttishly, adverb sluttishness, noun

Word Origin for slut

C14: of unknown origin