slatch ? Obs.
(slætʃ)
[A derivative of OE. slæc slack a., with normal palatalization.]
1. = slash n.4 rare.
| 1603 Owen Pembrokeshire (1892) 91 A slatch they call a peece of coal by itselfe found in the erthe and is quicklie digged about and no more to be found of that peece. 1916 T. C. Cantrill et al. Geol. S. Wales Coalfield xii. xii. 116 It is probable that the circular or elliptical pockets of coal known as ‘slatches’ or ‘slashes’ are the remains of short closed synclinal masses of coal abnormally swollen out by the squeezing-down of the two sides of the syncline. |
2. Naut. † a. The slack of a rope. Obs.
| a 1625 Nomencl. Navalis (Harl. MS. 2301) 126 When..parte of a Cabell or Roape doth hang slack,..then they said hale the Slatch of the Roape or Cabell. [Hence in Boteler, Holme, Harris, etc.] 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. ix. 39 Hale vp the slatch of the Lee-boling. By Slatch is meant the middle part of any rope hangs ouer boord. |
b. A brief respite or interval; a short period or spell (of some kind of weather, etc.).
| a 1625 Nomencl. Navalis (Harl. MS. 2301), Whan it hath beene a sett of foule weather and that there comes an Interim..of faire weather,..they call it a little Slatch of faire weather. [Hence in Boteler, Holme, Harris, etc.] 1633 T. James Voy. 79 Wee could neuer haue a cleere slatch from Ice, to haue it vp. 1703 Sir H. Shere Medit. Sea in Ld. Halifax's Misc. 9 At certain times in the Winter Season, they take their Slatches of Flood and Ebb according to their Occasions. 1730 Wriglesworth Jrnl. of the Lyell 7 Apr., This morning it blowing Hard,..so [we] must wait for a slatch of fair Weather. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1780), Slatch, is generally applied to the period of a transitory breeze of wind, or the length of it's duration. [Hence in later Dicts.] |