slide, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

slide v.

1. in fig. senses of evasion.

(a) (also slide by, slide out) to evade punishment or responsibility; to get by with minimal effort.

1851		Manchester Spy (NH) 17 May n.p.: There is some enquiry among the boys, to know by what hocus pocus means some two or three slid out, after being taken [...] for rioting [...] Some think they were ‘stool pigeons’ and others, that they were greased.
1925		Wodehouse Carry on, Jeeves 55: ‘You ate something that disagreed with you last night, didn’t you?’ I said, by way of giving him a chance to slide out of it if he wanted.
1975		G. Underwood ‘Razorback Sl.’ in AS L:1/2 66: Say, brother, let me slide this time.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 28: Letting stick-up men slide for snitch dope.
1991		B. McCarthy Vice Cop 146: Do fucking nothing—that was the message of government to its law enforcers. Do only what they made you do. Slide by.
2000		J. Bouton Ball Four—the Final PItch 490: ‘Do the people you work with know that you used to be a major league ballplayer?’ [...] ‘It depends on the job. Sometimes I’m able to slide and sometimes I’m not’.

(b) (also slide out) to leave.

1855		Broadway Belle (NY) 12 Mar. n.p.: Took all the ‘brads’ and ‘slid’ away.
1856		Melbourne Punch 20 Nov. 3/1: Proposals for a New Slang Dictionary [...] ABSQUATULATE.—Originally written Absquostatulate. Verb neuter: To clear, to vamos, to mizzle, to cut one's stick, to hook it, to slide, to bolt to break out, etc.
1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 18 Mar. 2/4: And the parent stern replied: / ‘There ain’t no harm In a vest; slide out,’ / But the lad refuse to slide .
1890		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 11 Jan. 3/3: Kelly ‘slid,’ in the vernacular of baseballists .
1894		Truth (Sydney) 4 Mar. 1/4: The male article didn’t appear, but has slid to Maoriland.
1981		Detroit Free Press (MI) 6 July 17/1: slide off — leave me alone.
1989		A. Vachss Hard Candy (1990) 20: Take the five and slide.
2016		A. Wheatle Crongton Knights 239: If any of your bredrens try to slide, I swear, your neck’s spurting untold red’.

1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 64: This one is shot four bills and asking to slide.
1999		E. Bunker Mr Blue 390: I can slide in if I can get him a rig.

(d) (US) to escape a criminal charge.

2003

J. Ellroy ‘Stephanie’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 62: A 14-year-old boy attacks two 11-year-old girls. He slides on it.

2. (UK black/gang) to walk, to travel, e.g. into a rival gang’s territory.

1938		P. Grey ‘’Twixt Night ’n’ Dawn’ in Afro-American (Baltimore, MD) 3 Dec. 11/5: I slid (ice-covered streets) on down the street a few doors to sonny’s cafe.
1967		Werthman & Pillavin ‘Gang Members & the Police’ in Bordua Police 77: ‘[A]fter [thepolice] gone, then everybody just slide on back there and resume where they left off at’.
2018		CGM ‘No Porkie Pies’ 🎵 A hundred man in your vid, when I slide on your block ain’t no one about (where ’dem ’dere?).

3. (orig. US black) to dance [the use of smooth parquet dance-floors].

1947		M.H. Boulware Jive and Sl.
1958		Peter Cape ‘Down the Hall on a Saturday Night’ 🎵 I’m gonna climb onto me tractor, / Gonna belt ’er out of the gate, / ’Cause there’s a hop on down at the hall, and / She starts sharp somewhere ’bout 1/2 past 8. / Look at the sheilas cutting the supper / And look at the kids sliding over the floor.
1995		A. Heckerling Clueless [film script] Ready to slide? [...] (Christian and Cher return to the dance floor).

In phrases

do the slide (v.)

see sense 1a above.

let it slide (v.)

to ignore, to dismiss; also as imper., don’t bother, it doesn’t matter.

1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. V 65: Well, if so be you say so, since we’re friends, I’ll let it slide!
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 125/2: I think ’t wud be bettir to let it slyde tu-nyght, and du it tu-morro’ nyght i’steead.
1874		‘English Sl.’ in Eve. Telegram (NY) 9 Dec. 1/5: Let us present a few specimens:– [...] ‘Oh, let it slide.’.
1880		Manchester Wkly Times 27 Mar. 16/3: Song sung by the Chancellor [...] on the Budget [...] ‘I’ve had a deficit for some years — But let it slide!’.
1882		Atlanta Constitution 20 Apr. 4/4: Chaucer may be quoted in support of the slang phrase ‘let it slide.’.
1908		Sporting Times 11 Apr. 1/4: Only his great power of exhibiting his good sense at the right moment decided him to ‘be a gentleman’ and let it slide.
1921		Tennessean (Nashville, TN) 5 Aug. 4/3: If you’re pained by coughs and chills / [...] / Or by the durn confounded bills — Let ’em slide!
1922		Joyce Ulysses 430: Calls for more effort. [...] O, let it slide.
1946		D. Stivens Courtship of Uncle Henry 70: He got on my works then but I let it slide.
1957		H. Simmons Corner Boy 18: Maybe she should let it slide just for the night.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 56: I didn’t want to make more trouble [...] so I let it slide.
1979		E. Torres After Hours 137: The coke will do it every time. I let it [i.e. an insult] slide.
1989		A. Vachss Hard Candy (1990) 20: About ten to twenty years. Even if they let it slide with manslaughter.
2001		‘Randy Everhard’ Tattoo of a Naked Lady 23: I’ll let it slide just this once.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] [H]e let it slide and covered our asses with the lieutenant.
2010		W.D. Myers Lockdown 183: ‘[M]aybe the jury would let him slide because the overall case was weak’.

let slide (v.)

(orig. US) to overlook, to forgive.

1845		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 29 Nov. 117/4: It appears from what we can lear that Bennett and Gibbs let Davis ‘slide’.
a.1859		in Bartlett Dict. Americanisms (2nd edn) 241: If California was going to cost the Union so much, it would be better to let California slide.
1859		‘Timothy Titcomb’ Letters to Young People 141: If you can’t ‘come up to the scratch,’ why I must ‘let you slide.’.
1865		Kentish Gaz. 14 Feb. 8/5: [from Richmond Enquirier, VA] Let peace slide; and let us turn our whole and undivided attention to war.
1871		C.G. Leland ‘Breitmann at a Picnic’ in Hans Breitmann in Europe 283: Since you votes mine dicket, of course you know, / I’m pound to led you shlide und go.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Feb. 5/4: If you knock off alcohol, opium and tobacco […]. Let tea and coffee, too, slide for a bit, and take from 10 to 20 minims of tincture of gelseminum three or four times a day for six or eight weeks you will find life ever so much pleasanter.
1900		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Each Way’ Sporting Times 24 Mar. 1/4: There being Scotch and seltzer on a tray, / She took half a glass of whisky neat, and let the seltzer slide.
1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Aug. 14/2: The bill ran to £300 ere instructions could be obtained from headquarters to throw the Maoris indignantly out of gaol, and let the dog-tax slide.
1912		G.R. Chester Five Thousand an Hour Ch. xv: I understand now why Johnny Gamble wants to make a million dollars. As soon as he gets it he’ll propose to Miss Joy, she’ll accept him and let the million slide.
1920		T. Thursday ‘Score Another One for Barnum’ in Argosy All-Story 11 Sept. 🌐 Not being a trouper, we let him slide.
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 103: I saw that it might be best to let the Gandhi motif slide.
1934		R.L. Bellem ‘Sleeping Dogs’ in Spicy Detective Sept. 🌐 ‘In the first place [...] Leneta and I are just good friends— nothing more.’ I let that slide.
1953		J. Thompson Savage Night (1991) 11: I let everything slide when I married Jake.
1965		J. Thompson Texas by the Tail (1994) 123: You just let everything slide.
1965		(con. 1940s) Malcolm X Autobiog. (1968) 163: A lot of passenger complaints about me, Pappy had let slide.
1984		W.D. Myers Motown and Didi 23: [H]e was always straight in his dealings. He didn’t let anything slide.
1995		Mack 10 ‘Based on a True Story’ 🎵 Let that slide, and you pay it no mine / Find that hes slappin you all the time.

slide by (v.) (US black)

1. to drop in uninvited, without previous notice.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 109: I high sign on couple cats if they slide by.

2. to fool, to deceive.

1993

J. Mowry Six Out Seven (1994) 334: How one of them suckers ever slide by you?

3. (US black) to survive (barely).

2013

W.D. Myers Darius & Twig 40: ‘She was working four days and now she’s working three. [...] That’s like twenty-five percent of your income gone. We were just sliding by before that’.

slide off/out (v.)

see sense 1 above.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

slidewalk (n.)

see separate entry.

In phrases

slide off a log (v.)

(Aus.) to blunder, to make a mistake.

1885

Bulletin (Sydney) 6 Jun. 6/1: The Standard says that no such [malicious] statements as the Judge refers to appeared in its columns. Someone has slid off a log.

slide one’s jib (v.)

see under jib n.¹