DCHP-1 Online

slide

• 1a n. Lumbering an artificial sluiceway down which logs or cribs may be directed to avoid rapids, falls, or other obstructions in a river.

  See also: chute (def. 3)  log slide  shoot ((n.)) (def. 2)  timber chute  timber slide  

  • 1836  On Saturday last the new slide, to facilitate the passing of the Chaudier falls was opened, and the first crib run.
  • 1875  The first slide, on the north side of the Ottawa, was built in 1829 by Philemon Wright, and was subsequently purchased by the Government for $40,000.
  • 1891  At one side of the fall a "slide" is built--that is, a contrivance something like a canal, with sides and bottom of heavy timber, and having a steep slope down which the water rushes in frantic haste to the level below.
  • 1948  No "improvements" are noticeable, unless the old 1800 foot slide to by-pass Aubrey Falls, or the rotting dam above the Falls, can be called improvements.
  • 1964  Shooting the slides on cribs took many a lumberjack's life.

• 1b n. Northwest a fast-moving stretch of water over a relatively smooth bed. See 1955 quote at riffle (def. 1c).

  See also: riffle ((n.)) (def. 1c)  

• 2a † n. the mass of earth, rocks, etc. deposited by a landslide.

  • 1866  (1962)  On prospeckin' I still was bent ;/Had shares in a' the kintra side,/In shafts gaun' doon thro' slum and slide. . . .
  • 1908  The men had to cope with the swift current, bordered by a series of steep gumbo slides, where the tracking was hazardous. . . .
  • 1957  . . . at the foot of the slide lay ten dead wild sheep, which appeared either to have been tumbled by the avalanche or to have been hit by an aircraft.

• 2b † n. the part of a mountain side over which an avalanche or landslide has passed, recognizable as an area bearing a growth of grass and shrubs rather than trees.

  See also: slide course  

  • 1916  . . . the growth on these slides varies . . . according to the exposure; and while one slide may be quite green, another may have snow on it.

• 3 n. an artificial runway built on a hill for the use of tobogganists.

  See also: tobogganist  toboggan slide  

  • 1870  Our illustration shows . . . a fair sprinkling of pleasure-seekers trying to enjoy the national toboggan adown its steep slides.
  • 1898  The perfection of tobogganing is found on the artificial slides which are raised to a dizzy height, with a wide, deep trough, coated with snow and ice, pitching toward the ground at a fearful angle.
  • 1927  The slides are specially constructed of ice sides. . . .

• 4 n. Nfld See 1933 quote at catamaran (def. 2b).

  See also: catamaran ((n.)) (def. 2b)  

  • 1665  (1885)  [We overloaded our slide on that rotten ice. . . .]
  • 1906  Said he, "We're all right now, sir. Here's an old slide-path."
  • 1937  To swamp a road or path is to build one with a bedding of boughs to be used in hauling slide loads of wood in winter.
  • 1957  And the old dog Rex was harnessed next and hitched fast to the slide.

• 5 † n. See 1948 quote.

  See also: sliding (def. 1)  

  • c1948  The best place to make a set is where the otter amuse themselves sliding down steep banks until they have made a "slide."
  • 1920  The animals [otters] may be seen sliding down and climbing up again for hours on end, evidently in a state of keen enjoyment. Trappers take advantage of this habit to capture the otters at their slides.