Websters Dictionary 1828
This online edition has been carefully prepared in a special format. All words, definitions, and examples have been preserved, but the explanations of word origins have been left out to make the data easier to use in a digital format. We have also removed Webster's long technical introduction for the same reason.
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Slay
SLAY, verb transitive preterit tense slew; participle passive slain. [The proper sense is to strike, and as beating was an early mode of killing, this word, like smite, came to signify to kill. It seems to be formed on the root of lay; as we say to lay on.]
1. To kill; to put to death by a weapon or by violence. We say, he slew a man with a sword, with a stone, or with a club, or with other arms; but we never say, the serif slays a malefactor with a halter, or a man is slain on the gallows or by poison. So the slay retains something of its primitive sense of striking or beating. It is particularly applied to killing in battle, but is properly applied also to the killing of a individual man or beast.
2. To destroy.
First Occurrence in the Bible(KJV): Genesis 4:14