2. Any rock or stone having a slaty structure.
3. A prepared piece of such stone. Especially:
(a) A thin, flat piece, for roofing or covering houses,
etc.
(b) A tablet for writing upon.
4. An artificial material, resembling slate, and used for the
above purposes.
5. A thin plate of any material; a flake. [Obs.]
6. (Politics) A list of candidates, prepared for nomination
or for election; a list of candidates, or a programme of
action, devised beforehand. [Cant, U.S.] --Bartlett.
{Adhesive slate} (Min.), a kind of slate of a greenish gray
color, which absorbs water rapidly, and adheres to the
tongue; whence the name.
{Aluminous slate}, or {Alum slate} (Min.), a kind of slate
containing sulphate of alumina, -- used in the manufacture
of alum.
{Bituminous slate} (Min.), a soft species of sectile clay
slate, impregnated with bitumen.
{Hornblende slate} (Min.), a slaty rock, consisting
essentially of hornblende and feldspar, useful for
flagging on account of its toughness.
{Slate ax} or {axe}, a mattock with an ax end, used in
shaping slates for roofs, and making holes in them for the
nails.
{Slate clay} (Geol.), an indurated clay, forming one of the
alternating beds of the coal measures, consisting of an
infusible compound of alumina and silica, and often used
for making fire bricks. --Tomlinson.
{Slate globe}, a globe the surface of which is made of an
artificial slatelike material.
{Slate pencil}, a pencil of slate, or of soapstone, used for
writing on a slate.
{Slate rocks} (Min.), rocks which split into thin lamin[ae],
not necessarily parallel to the stratification; foliated
rocks.
{Slate spar} (Min.), a variety of calcite of silvery white
luster and of a slaty structure.
{Transparent slate}, a plate of translucent material, as
ground glass, upon which a copy of a picture, placed
beneath it, can be made by tracing.
Note: The ancient battle-ax had sometimes a double edge.
Note: The word is used adjectively or in combination; as,
axhead or ax head; ax helve; ax handle; ax shaft;
ax-shaped; axlike.
Note: This word was originally spelt with e, axe; and so also
was nearly every corresponding word of one syllable:
as, flaxe, taxe, waxe, sixe, mixe, pixe, oxe, fluxe,
etc. This superfluous e is not dropped; so that, in
more than a hundred words ending in x, no one thinks of
retaining the e except in axe. Analogy requires its
exclusion here.
Note: ``The spelling ax is better on every ground, of
etymology, phonology, and analogy, than axe, which has
of late become prevalent.'' --New English Dict.
(Murray).
Yet your butterfly was a grub. --Shak.
2. A short, thick man; a dwarf. [Obs.] --Carew.
3. Victuals; food. [Slang] --Halliwell.
{Grub ax} or {axe}, a kind of mattock used in grubbing up
roots, etc.
{Grub breaker}. Same as {Grub hook} (below).
{Grub hoe}, a heavy hoe for grubbing.
{Grub hook}, a plowlike implement for uprooting stumps,
breaking roots, etc.
{Grub saw}, a handsaw used for sawing marble.
{Grub Street}, a street in London (now called {Milton
Street}), described by Dr. Johnson as ``much inhabited by
writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary
poems, whence any mean production is called grubstreet.''
As an adjective, suitable to, or resembling the production
of, Grub Street.
I 'd sooner ballads write, and grubstreet lays.
--Gap.