slashed

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of slash.

   Vandals slashed the painting before guards could stop them.

   Prices were slashed across the whole store during the sale.

   Note

   One spelling serves as both the simple past and the participle. In 'vandals slashed the painting' and 'the painting was slashed', only the construction differs. Every sense of slash carries over to it: the blade stroke, the whip, the hockey foul across an opponent's arms, slashes cut into a garment, and the figurative senses of cutting prices or criticizing cuttingly. Before a noun, the participle becomes the 'cut or torn' adjective.

2. 2
   adjective

   Cut, torn, or split open, as if by a blade or sharp edge.

   Like a sail left in tatters after a knife was dragged through it.

   The museum displayed the slashed canvas behind protective glass.

   Their slashed sails flapped uselessly in the wind.

   Similartorn, ripped, cut, slit, gashed

   Oppositeintact, whole

3. 3
   adjective

   Bearing a slash (the diagonal stroke '/') as a written or printed mark.

   Like the line drawn through a seven in much of European handwriting.

   European writers often use a slashed seven to avoid confusion with the numeral one.

   The account field showed a slashed zero printed in bold.

   Similarcrossed, barred

   Note

   Here nothing is cut. The slash is a stroke of the pen, and the word describes a character drawn with one through it. Its classic use is the slashed zero, which cannot be confused with the letter O, because the stroke exists to tell look-alike characters apart. Context separates it from the 'cut or torn' adjective: a slashed zero is written, while a slashed canvas is damaged.

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