Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. Irish) to thrash or beat up.

1604		Marston Malcontent IV iii: ‘How did you kill him?’ ‘Slatted his brains out, then soused him in the briny sea.’.
1882		Bristol Magpie 16 Nov. 7/2: They who complain of the cost are fellows who ought to be ‘slated ’.
1894		J. Astley Fifty Years (2nd edn) I 256: The French lay very thick on the ground, the ‘Ruskies’ having slated them fearfully.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 75: Slate, [...] to beat .

2. to criticize severely; thus slating n., criticism.

1848		A. Watts in Life (1884) II 258: And, when they’d been by critics slated, Had always the review to show ’em .
1863		Story of a Lancashire Thief 12: It was quite another thing when he slated somebody in the — newspaper, and cut ’em up entirely.
1877		Illus. Sydney News 26 May 3/2: ‘Regulations’ [...] makes but little difference to ‘Mac’, so long as it gives him the opportunity of ‘slating’ them.
1880		N.Z. Observer (Auckland) 18 Sept. 6: When a play gets severely ‘slated’ people may go to the theatre to see what it is like, but the review of a friend who wishes to say kind things, but cannot, is terribly damaging.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Jan. 14/2: Old Pendragon is never so happy as when slating someone or something Australian.
1887		‘’Arry on His Critics’ in Punch 17 Dec. 280/1: Wy, it’s worth a fair sixpence a week jest to see ’em a slating Old Chips!
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 19 July 5/4: I slate his show from floats to flies, / Because the beggar won’t advertise.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 19 Mar. 4/6: Your department’s getting slated; by the vulgar it is stated that you’d run this country better if your name was Mary Ann.
1905		Sporting Times 11 Mar. 7/4: He slated my pantomime, and spoke ill of me behind my back.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 208: ... O you inquisitional drunken jew jesuit! She gets you a job on the paper and then you go and slate her drivel to Jaysus.
1931		E. Clark Innocence Abroad 119: A terrific slating of the Yankee, now and then, would be fine stuff.
1942		W.R. Burnett Quick Brown Fox 42: ‘This is terrific,’ he said. ‘You like it?’ she demanded eagerly. ‘I’ll feature it. Oh, what a slating!’.
1998		K. Sampson Awaydays 57: I used to slate him for his lack of ambition, for being a loser.
2006		G. Malkani Londonstani (2007) 30: I just slated the way I was thinkin, same way my mind slates the way I speak.
2015		‘Elvis Costello’ Unfaithful Music 413: Sinatra's performances were slated and critics suggested, not for the first or last time, that he was finished.

3. to punish.

1885

Bulletin (Sydney) 23 May 6/2: [I]n the libel suit of Dove v. the London Referee is perhaps the choicest example of what juries will do when they lose their heads or there’s a newspaper to be ‘slated.’ […] Dove bought an action and ‘potted’ the paper for £300.

4. to abuse.

1907

J.M. Synge Playboy of the Western World Act III: There’s the playboy! There’s the lad thought he’d rule the roost in Mayo. Slate him now, Mister.

5. to rain hard.

1998

K. Sampson Awaydays 98: It’s starting to slate down — cold, freezing fucking rain.