▪ I. slaver, n.1
(ˈslævə(r))
Forms: 4 slavere, 5 slavyr, 6–7 slauer, 6– slaver.
[Related to slaver v. Cf. Icel. slafur in the same sense.]
1. Saliva issuing or falling from the mouth.
| c 1325 Gloss. W. de Bibbesw. in Wright Voc. 143 Pur sauver ses dras de baavure, from slavere. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 458/2 Slavyr, orexis. 1562 Turner Herbal ii. (1568) 79 The leafe is hote: and holden vnder ones tethe, bryngeth furth slauer. 1575 Laneham Let. (1871) 17 To shake hiz earz twyse or thryse wyth the blud & the slauer aboout his fiznamy. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 329 The froth or slauer of an horse mouth. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 136 That a Toad communicates its venom..by the humiditie and slaver of its mouth. 1735 Pope Prol. Sat. 106 Of all mad creatures..It is the slaver kills, and not the bite. 1774 Goldsmith Nat. Hist. (1862) II. 400 A venomous slaver, which, they suppose, issues from the Salamander's mouth. 1820 Byron Blues i. 47 I'd inoculate sooner my wife with the slaver Of a dog when gone rabid. 1834 Disraeli Rev. Epick i. xlix, It spat, and washed With burning slaver from my front the cross. 1904 M. Hewlett Queen's Quair ii. iv, Ruthven, with the slaver of his rage upon his mouth. |
b. fig. Drivel, nonsense; also, gross flattery.
| 1825 Coleridge A Character 68 The coward whine and Frenchified Slaver and slang of the other side. 1862 Times 2 Apr., A modest man, one to whom such slaver must be loathsome. 1893 H. T. Cozens-Hardy Broad Norf. 55 Some people may look upon this correspondence as a lot of squit and slaver (nonsense). |
2. Mucus-slime of fish or worms. rare.
| 1650 Earl of Monmouth tr. Senault's Man bec. Guilty 293 She got nothing but the slaver of worms, or scum of fishes. 1657 S. Purchas Pol. Flying-Ins. 46 In the Eele..is no Sex visible, yet by their slaver..do they produce their young. |
▪ II. slaver, n.2
(ˈsleɪvə(r))
[f. slave n.1 + -er1.]
1. A vessel engaged in slave-traffic.
| 1830 R. Walsh Notices of Brazil, 1828–9 II. 482 This was opposed by the mate of the slaver. 1863 H. Cox Instit. iii. viii. 722 The proceeds of ships..condemned as slavers. 1886 Athenæum 13 Nov. 627/3 They were in the boats creeping up to a slaver. |
| attrib. and Comb. 1886 Athenæum 13 Nov. 627/3 The story of his slaver hunting carries one back to boyish recollections. 1897 Daily News 30 Dec. 5 As stout a slaver-skipper as ever kept niggers under hatches. |
2. One who deals or traffics in, or owns, slaves.
| 1842 Longfellow Quadroon Girl iv, The Slaver's thumb was on the latch. 1862 Industrial Mag. Feb. 52 In America the slavers themselves make it an open boast. 1889 John Bull 2 Mar. 145/2 That there was no worse slaver than the present Sultan of Turkey. |
▪ III. slaver
variant of sliver n.
▪ IV. slaver, v.
(ˈslævə(r))
Forms: 4– slaver, 5 slawer, slavyr, 6–7 slauer.
[app. of Scand. origin: cf. Icel. slafra in the same sense, related to LG. slabbern, etc., slabber v.]
1. intr. To let the saliva run from the mouth; to slabber. Also fig.
| c 1325 Gloss. W. de Bibbesw. in Wright Voc. 143 L'enfaunt bave de nature, slaveryt of kynde. c 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 784 His mouthe slavers, his tethe rotes. c 1425 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 668 Salmare, to slawer. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 458/2 Slaveron, orexo. 1530 Palsgr. 720/2 Fye on the knave, arte thou nat a shamed to slaver lyke a yonge chylde. 1576 Turberv. Venerie 224 He driueleth and slauereth at the mouth commonly. 1607 Markham Caval. i. (1617) 83 You shall euer haue a Horse that is so cut,..continually slauering, because the moysture which commeth into his mouth, cannot bee held in. 1667 H. More Div. Dial. iii. vi, It may be also, when they take Tobacco, they slaver on the shorn side of their Chin. 1751 Phil. Trans. XLVII. 194 All of them slaver'd and frequently chang'd colour. 1797 T. Wright Autobiog. (1864) 87 He chewed tobacco, and sitting next my companion, slavered and spat upon his coat. 1841 Thackeray Men & Coats Wks. 1886 XXIII. 366 The man was bleeding at the nose, and slavering at the mouth. 1874 Holland Mistr. Manse xxvi. 228 With lips that slavered with their hate. |
b. fig. To drivel; to fawn. Also with it.
| 1730 Swift Wks. (1755) IV. i. 122 Why must he sputter, spawl, and slaver it In vain against the people's fav'rite? 1753 Smollett Ct. Fathom (1784) 13/1 Where humour turns changeling, and slavers in an insipid grin. 1862 Wraxall tr. Hugo's Les Miserables iv. xxvii, It is a..frog-like language which crawls, slavers. 1894 Hall Caine Manxman 135 He thought..of his uncle and how he had snubbed and then slavered over him. |
2. To issue as or like slaver.
| 1582 Stanyhurst æneis iii. (Arb.) 90, I saw flesh bluddye toe slauer, When the cob had maunged the gobets. 1614 B. Jonson Barth. Fair ii. vi, Still the bottle-ale slauereth, and the tabacco stinketh! 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. ix. 103 Their gums are seen..with spittle slavering forth. |
3. trans. To wet with saliva; to slobber.
| 1591 Harington Orl. Fur. xxx. xcix, That [meat] they left they did so file and slaver As few could brook the sight. a 1601 ? Marston Pasquil & Kath. ii. 209 Thou wast not made to slauer her faire lips With thy dead rewmy chops. 1693 Dryden, etc., tr. Juvenal's Sat. vii. 144 With white Froth his Gown is slaver'd o'er. 1819 Southey Lett. (1856) III. 135 Provided it be slavered over with a froth of philosophy. 1865 M. E. Braddon Only a Clod i, To..slaver his hand with its flapping tongue. |
b. fig. To fondle, to flatter, in a disgusting or sycophantic manner.
| 1794 A. M. Bennett Ellen III. 183 She wondered Mr. Runnington was not ashamed to be slavering such a great girl. 1832 A. W. Fonblanque Eng. under 7 Administr. (1837) II. 238 This eagerness to slaver the arch-foe of the cause. 1856 Mrs. Browning Aur. Leigh vi. Wks. (1904) 484/2 Is it that the Devil slavers them So excellently, that we come to doubt Who's stronger? |
4. To utter in a slavering fashion. Also with out.
| 1599 Broughton Lett. i. 7 You will needes..slauer out your follies in view of the world. 1847 Disraeli Tancred ii. xii, Slavering portentous stories about malcontent country gentlemen. |
Hence ˈslaverer, one who slavers; also fig., a servile flatterer.
| 1618 B. Holyday Technogamia iii. v, My Slauerer was at his Tobacco. 1843 Blackw. Mag. LIII. 71 Fashionable life has been exalted above its just and proper level, and depressed below it, by the slaverers and the vituperators. |