slant n.
1. as a scheme or opportunity [naut. jargon slant, a favourable wind].
(a) an opportunity to push forward a plan or stratagem.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Hist. of My Own Times (1995) 82: All which was done by way of a slant, that if I knew where he lived [...] that I would find a way to get them without his consent. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Argus (Melbourne) 13 Apr. 6/3: He was continually off and on ‘waiting for a slant,’ as the colonial slang goes, to steal. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 20 June 7/1: As it is, if Tip gets half a slant, he’ll locate a big section of the golden streets of the New Jerusalem as a prospecting area, or take it up under a mining lease. | |
| ‘The Loafers Club’ in Old Bush Songs 87: They are to live upon the cash which others have been earning [...] And if they see a slant to turn your pockets inside out, sir. | |
| Buln-Buln and the Brolga (1948) 🌐 Ain’t every day a man gits a slant o’ goin’ mates with white piccaninnies. | |
| (con. 1905–25) Professional Thief (1956) 9: The best slant in that spot is on Monday between twelve and two o’clock. |
(b) (Aus.) a plan or scheme spec. designed to ensure a favourable result; an exploitable gimmick, an ulterior motive.
| Age (Melbourne) 13 Dec. 5/2: The hard and heavy labor allotted to all prisoners can only be lightened a little by their getting what they call a ‘slant,’ in one of the numberless ‘billets’ on the ground. | |
| Tales of the Old Regime 217: Pedder [...] had organized that movement which was popularly known in Norfolk Island and Port Arthur as a ‘slant,’ that is, he had planned a murder or mutiny on purpose to obtain a trial in Hobart or Sydney. | |
| Such is Life 30: They never got a slant to snavel my lot. | |
| Red Harvest (1965) 16: There are a couple of slants to be taken care of. | |
| letter 31 Dec. in Mitgang (1968) 275: You blaze away at the theme the way it looks to you. And jot down any and all scraps of ideas, slants, facts. | |
| Life in a Putty Knife Factory (1948) 173: I didn’t [...] get Emily Post’s slant on answering the telephone. | |
| Aus. Lang. 45: Slant, a deliberate offence committed by a convict in order to obtain a trial in Hobart or Sydney. |
(c) (US) a sense of, comprehension [var. on angle n.].
| New York Day by Day 16 Aug. [synd. col.] I cannot get the slant on New York wives who shoot their husbands. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | One Man’s War 74: How overly important things seem at the time, and how unimportant they become after we get the proper slant on them. | |
| ‘Crepe for Suzette’ Thrilling Detective Oct. 🌐 How did you know he was a friend of Suzette Darcy’s? Who gave you the slant on that? |
2. (US) showing off.
| N.Y. Daily Globe 19 Jan. n.p.: Just by way of ‘slant,’ we have treated ourselves to a pair of bran-new breeches, the first new ones for a year, a pair of cow-hide boots, a pair of leather mittens, and we intend taking a stiff in them during the holidays. |
3. (US) a glance, a brief look [i.e. ‘out of the corner of one’s eye’].
 | see take a slant | |
| Broadway Melody 68: I was clocking that start those high-steppers just tried out. I think I got their angle from my slant. | |
| ‘Stag Party’ in Penzler Pulp Fiction (2006) 121: If I give you a slant on what happened you ought to be able to hang an act on it. | |
| N.Y. Amsterdam News 24 June 16: Back Door came to Pompton Lakes [...] to get a slant on the boys and girls who [...] trek here to see Champion Joe Louis. | |
| Quick Brown Fox 219: ‘[D]on’t let Brant get a slant at her or you’ll lose her. He likes them long-legged, blonde babies’. |
4. (also slants, slanty) a derog. term for an East Asian person [the shape of East Asian people’s eyes].
| Manchester Guardian Weekly 20 Dec. 6: Besides being called gooks, the Vietnamese are also known as slopes, slants, and dinks. | |
| Cinderella Liberty 161: A Chinese cook comes out of the back door [...] ‘Bend over, slanty,’ shouts Forshay. ‘I got somethin’ for you!’. | |
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 254: slant(s) [...] Asian person. | |
| Whores for Gloria 36: Fighting the fucking gooks and slants and slopes. | |
| Lex. of Cadet Lang. 348: slanty eye an Asian — usually shortened to slant. | |
| (con. 1964–8) Cold Six Thousand 314: O-heads boocoo. O-heads in orbit. Slants and some round-eyes. One jigaboo. | |
| Donnybrook [ebook] He’d try his luck with the slant [...] Fu didn’t blink. |
In compounds
see separate entry.
see separate entries.
In phrases
to run off without paying a bill.
| Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Apr. 32/2: Nobody wud ever sispect me of doin’ a slant. But I’d made up me mind never ter pay me board – never! Nobody ever battened on me [...] Me frock-coat, me fat portmanto, an’ me steady eye, filled the lirrle ladies wiv confidence. |
to form an opinion of/about someone or something.
| Practical Druggist and Spatula 31 29/1: It is time to take a look around and get a slant on what the rest of this human ant bed is doing. | |
| Rotarian Mar. 90/1: Let him tarry just long enough to get a slant on some of the practical results of all this mass vocalization. | |
| Unseen Hands 176: I’ll run up ter de big burg an’ get a slant on de game. | |
| ‘One, Two, Three’ in Penzler Pulp Fiction (2006) 15: He’d figured I had some kind of slant on what it was all about. | |
| Don’t Get Me Wrong (1956) 49: I start gettin’ some slants on Fernanda, who looks to me like she has got a lot of instinct an’ is a logical baby as well. | |
| Billboard 16 Feb. 18/2: Walker [...] took Recording Manager Selvin along to get a slant on the show’s tunes. | |
| Billboard 29 Jan. 42/4: Suburbanite pushes a button to hear soul sounds, like those from hot black groups. [...] He tries to get a slant on a soul record that is breaking. | |
| Private Passions 146: ‘I can’t get a slant on this story,’ she complained. | |
| Blossom Hill 130: I’ve been hanging with his closest friends trying to get a slant on his thinking. |
to glance (at).
| in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 74: Take a slant at me bo. I’m the cake. | |
| in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 47: (The Judge Takes Harry To A Booby Hatch) Hey Harry I’ve got to see a Doc up at the bughouse. Wonna take a slant around the joint? Get me? | |
| ‘The New Fable of the Marathon in the Mud’ in Ade’s Fables 291: No wonder they all took a slant at him and spotted him as a Comer. | |
| Us Boys 9 Sept. [synd. cartoon strip] I’ll go down and take a slant at the movies. | |
| ‘Above the Law’ in Coll. Stories (1994) 55: Take a slant at it, Jerry. | |
| ‘Stroke of Genius’ in Top-Notch 1 Apr. 🌐 ‘Have a slant at this, Jim,’ he said, as he passed me one of the finished letters. | |
| ‘The National Commission Decides’ in Score by Innings (2004) 295: You stick around here until [...] the rest of those lunatics get a slant at Fowler, and watch the doings around this joint. | |
| Damsel in Distress 🌐 Ch. xxi: I went down to take a slant at this Lord Marshmoreton and found dadda hanging round the stage door. | |
| Kid Scanlon 231: Takin’ a slant at Tony through the trick eyeglass. | |
| Gangster Girl 81: I got a slant at you an’ you clicked. | |
| (con. 1900s) Behind The Green Lights 117: I don’t want that fellow to get a slant at you and know you squealed. | |
| ‘Finger Man’ in Pearls Are a Nuisance (1964) 99: The prowl car takes a slant down it now and then. | |
| Gang War 22: I got a slant at ’er eyes once or twice. | |
| ‘Latin Blood’ in Speed Detective Aug. 🌐 I copped a slant at the rear view mirror. |