verb. (colloquial).—1. To decamp; TO SKIP (q.v.): also TO SLIDE OUT = (1) to leave stealthily; and (2) to shirk: by artifice.
18[?]. R. S. WILLIS, Student’s Song [BARTLETT].
| Broken is the band that held us, | |
| We must cut our sticks and SLIDE. |
1896. LILLARD, Poker Stories, 150. He is supposed to gather his hat and coat, and SLIDE at once.
1899. R. WHITEING, No. 5 John Street, xxi. Cheese it, an’ SLIDE.
2. (colloquial).—To backslide; to WEAKEN (q.v.): e.g., from a resolution, attitude, or promise. As subs. = an error, a falling away; SLIDING = transgression.
1603. SHAKESPEARE, Measure for Measure, ii. 4, 115.
| And rather prov’d the SLIDING of your brother | |
| A merriment than a vice. |
1620. FORD, A Line of Life. The least blemish, the least SLIDE, the least error, the least offence is exasperated, made capital.
TO LET SLIDE, verb. phr. (old colloquial).—To let go; to allow things to take care of themselves.
1369. CHAUCER, Troilus and Criseyde, v. 357. So sholdestow endure, and LATEN SLYDE The tyme. Ibid. (1383), The Canterbury Tales, ‘The Clerkes Tale,’ 26. Wei neigh all other cures let he SLIDE.
1420. PALLADIUS, On Husbondrie [E.E.T.S.], 64. From fatte to leene is nought; lette that crafte SLYDE.
1593. SHAKESPEARE, Taming of the Shrew, Induct. i. 6. LET the world SLIDE.
