slab

noun

1. A large, flat piece of solid material; a solid object that is large and flat.

   “There were no windows in the inn. They were not required, since the interstices between the slabs suffered the wind, the rain, and the light of day to penetrate simultaneously.”

   “Then there was the Mexican who sold big slabs of chewing taffy for five cents each. […] And many a day I made my entire lunch off of one of those slabs.”

   “I was working in the lab late one night When my eyes beheld an eerie sight For my monster, from his slab, began to rise And suddenly, to my surprise He did the Mash He did the Monster Mash.”

   ““The pier? You mean those few sodden logs tied together and that dingy slab of rough concrete.””

2. A paving stone; a flagstone.
3. (Australia)A carton containing 24 cans (chiefly of beer).

   “The Australians murder a few slabs of beer and the New Zealanders murder a few vowels.”

   “The older man bought a slab of Coca-Cola at the counter and carried it out ahead of the younger man.”

   “2008, Diem Vo, Family Life, Alice Pung (editor), page 156, However, unlike in Ramsay Street, there were never any cups of tea or bickies served. Instead, each family unit came armed with a slab of beer.”

   “Common 375-ml cans are called tinnies, and can be bought in 24-can slabs for discounted prices.”

   “One essential part of the strategy for selling regionally identified beers beyond their borders was the selling of slabs — a package of four six-packs of stubbies or cans — for discounted prices interstate.”

4. An outside piece taken from a log or timber when sawing it into boards, planks, etc.
5. The slack part of a sail.
6. A very large wave.

   “After being towed into a massive slab, Dorian dropped down the face and caught a rail, putting him in a near-impossible situation.”

   “In August 2000 he successfully rode a slab of unfathomable power at Teahupo′o.”

7. The amount by which a cache can grow or shrink, used in memory allocation.
8. Part of a tectonic plate that is being, or has been, subducted.

   “Being driven by the gravitational force, the subducting Pacific slab continues to sink down to the boundary between the upper and lower mantle […]”

9. A poured-concrete foundation for a building.

   “Next week they'll pour the slab that the shed will sit on.”

10. A region between two parallel lines in the Euclidean plane, or between two parallel planes in three-dimensional Euclidean space, or between two hyperplanes in higher dimensions.
11. (India, especially)Any of the several portions or tiers in a tax rate plan.

    “Near-synonym: tax bracket”

12. A flat, sealed plastic case that encloses a flat collector's item, such as a coin or a trading card.
13. (US, slang)A large, luxury pre-1980 General Motors vehicle, particularly a Buick, Oldsmobile, or Cadillac.

    “Video screens have also become a standard part of slab interiors.”

    “After a few loops around the park, some drivers—most of them Black and Latino men in their twenties and thirties driving customized lowriders, bright, candy-colored slabs, and jacked-up trucks with flashy chrome rims—packed into a nearby middle school parking lot.”

14. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis, physical)Ellipsis of slab avalanche.
15. (archaic, uncountable)Mud, sludge, or other viscous matter.

    “Some do also plant oziers in their eights, like quick-sets, thick, and (near the water) keep them not more than half a foot above ground; but then they must be diligently cleansed from moss, slab, and ouze, and frequently prun'd (especially the smaller spires) to form single shoots;[…].”

16. (Southern-US, slang)A car that has been modified with equipment such as loudspeakers, lights, special paint, hydraulics, and other accessories.

    “Pull me over, try to check my slab”

    “I'mma swang, I'mma swing my slab lean to the left”

    “All three of them recognized who the Lexus'^([sic]) belonged to so he parked his slab and they cocked their guns.”

17. (British, dialectal, obsolete)A bird, the wryneck.
18. A sequence of 12 adjacent bits, serving as a byte in some computers.

verb

1. (transitive)To make into a slab.
2. (informal, transitive)To destroy (a structure) so completely as to leave only the foundation slab visible.

   “Multiple homes were slabbed by the monster tornado.”

adj

1. (archaic)Thick; viscous.

   “Make the gruel thick and slab:”