slaver

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English slaveren, from Old Norse slafra (“to slaver”), probably imitative. Doublet of slabber.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈslævə/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) enPR: slăvʹər, IPA^(key): /ˈslævɚ/
• Rhymes: -ævə(ɹ)

Verb

slaver (third-person singular simple present slavers, present participle slavering, simple past and past participle slavered)

1. (intransitive) To drool saliva from the mouth; to slobber.
2. (intransitive) To fawn.
3. (intransitive, of saliva) To be drooled out of someone’s mouth.
   • 1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 27:

     A fearsome sight it was to behold how he swelled in his wrath, and his eyes blazed like disastrous stars at midnight, and being wood with anger he gnashed his teeth till the froth stood at his lips and slavered down his chin.

4. (transitive) To smear with saliva issuing from the mouth.
5. To be besmeared with saliva.
   • c. 1611, William Shakespeare, Cymbeline, act 1, scene 7:

     should I, damn'd then, / Slaver with lips as common as the stairs / That mount the Capitol

Synonyms

• (emit saliva): drool, slobber

Translations

to drool saliva

Bulgarian: лигавя се (ligavja se) Chinese: Cantonese: 流口水 (lau4 hau2 seoi2) Mandarin: 流口水 (liú kǒushuǐ) Czech: slintat (cs) impf, slinit impf Danish: savle Dutch: kwijlen (nl), zabberen (nl) Faroese: sleva Finnish: kuolata (fi) French: baver (fr) German: sabbern (de), geifern (de) Italian: sbavare (it) Japanese: 涎が出る (よだれがでる, yodare ga deru) Maori: hāwareware Polish: ślinić się (pl) Portuguese: babar (pt)

Noun

slaver (uncountable)

1. Saliva running from the mouth; drool.
   • 1735 January 13 (Gregorian calendar; indicated as 1734), [Alexander] Pope, An Epistle from Mr. Pope, to Dr. Arbuthnot, London: […] J[ohn] Wright for Lawton Gilliver […], →OCLC, page 6, lines 101–102:

     Of all mad Creatures, if the Learn'd are right, / It is the Slaver kills, and not the Bite.

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 1]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

     He went over to it, held it in his hands awhile, feeling its coolness, smelling the clammy slaver of the lather in which the brush was stuck.

Etymology 2

From slave (“enslave, traffic in slaves”) +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: slāʹvə, IPA^(key): /ˈsleɪvə/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) enPR: slāʹvər, IPA^(key): /ˈsleɪvɚ/

Noun

slaver (plural slavers)

2. A person engaged in the slave trade; a person who buys, sells, transports, or owns slaves.
   • 2013, John Christgau, Incident at the Otterville Station: A Civil War Story of Slavery and Rescue, U of Nebraska Press, →ISBN, page 25:

     The continued fight between abolitionists and slavers in Missouri caused slave owners to refuge slaves to the Confederate interior. But some Union forces that made salients into rebel territory insisted that the slaves were “contraband”  […]

   1. A white slaver; a person who sells prostitutes into sexual slavery.
3. (nautical) A ship used to transport slaves.
   • 1887, Mrs. Dominic D. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 14:

     The Gulnare was a fast sailer, built for a slaver originally[.]

   • 2018 December 1, Drachinifel, 10:12 from the start, in Anti-Slavery Patrols - The West Africa Squadron‎, archived from the original on 29 November 2024:

     Somewhat unsurprisingly, unleashing the most powerful navy on the planet with carte blanche to exterminate slavers on sight saw a dramatic and sudden collapse in slaver numbers in the late 1840s and early 1850s.

Translations

a person engaged in the slave trade

Arabic: نَخَّاس m (naḵḵās) Bulgarian: търговец на роби m (tǎrgovec na robi) Dutch: slavenhandelaar (nl) m Finnish: orjakauppias French: marchand d'esclaves m, esclavagiste (fr) m or f, négrier (fr) m, négrière (fr) f Galician: escravista m or f, negreiro m, negreira f German: Sklavenhändler (de) m, Sklavenhändlerin (de) f, Sklavenhalter (de) m, Sklavenhalterin (de) f Greek: δουλέμπορος (el) m (doulémporos) Ancient: σωματέμπορος m (sōmatémporos), ἀνδραποδιστής m (andrapodistḗs) Italian: schiavista (it) m or f, negriero (it) m, negriere m, negriera f Latin: mango (la) m Manx: kionneyder sleab m Ottoman Turkish: اسیرجی (esirci) Polish: handlarz niewolników m Portuguese: escravista (pt) m or f, negreiro (pt) m, negreira (pt) f Russian: работорго́вец (ru) m (rabotorgóvec), торго́вец раба́ми m (torgóvec rabámi) Spanish: esclavista (es) m or f, negrero (es) m, negrera (es) f Swedish: slavhandlare c Turkish: esirci (tr) Ukrainian: работорго́вець (uk) m (rabotorhóvecʹ), торго́вець раба́ми m (torhóvecʹ rabámy)

slave ship

Bulgarian: кораб превозващ роби m (korab prevozvašt robi) Dutch: slavenhaler m, slavenschip (nl) n Finnish: orjalaiva French: navire d'esclaves m Manx: saagh sleab m Polish: statek niewolniczy m Swedish: slavskepp (sv) n

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2025), “slaver”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• “slaver” in Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary: Based on Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, 7th edition, Springfield, Mass.: G[eorge] & C[harles] Merriam, 1963 (1967 printing), →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Lavers, arvels, larves, lavers, ravels, revals, salver, serval, velars, versal

Danish

Etymology 1

Via Medieval Latin Sclavus and Byzantine Greek Σκλάβος (Sklábos) from Proto-Slavic *slověninъ. Compare also English Slav and German Slawe. The Medieval Latin word was also used for “slave” (cf. Danish slave).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈslæˀʋɐ], [ˈslæwˀɐ]

Noun

slaver c

1. Slav

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈslæːʋɐ], [ˈslæːwɐ]

Noun

slaver c

1. indefinite plural of slave

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈslæːʋɐ], [ˈslæːwɐ]

Verb

slaver

1. present of slave

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

slaver m pl

1. indefinite masculine plural of slave

Swedish

Noun

slaver

1. indefinite plural of slav

Anagrams

• alvers, levars, slevar, valser, versal