slips

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of slip.

   The betting slips piled up on the counter by closing time.

   She made a few slips while reading the speech aloud.

   Note

   Every meaning of the noun takes the same regular -s. Mistakes, undergarments, berths where ships moor and pieces of paper such as betting slips all share one plural, so only context tells them apart. Keep these separate from the cricket fielding area, which has no singular in that meaning. Fielders stand in the slips, but you would not call one fielder a slip in the same sense.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of slip.

   The sharp knife slips easily through the ripe tomato.

   Time slips away quickly when you are enjoying yourself.

   Note

   One verb form covers both halves of slip. Intransitively, things lose their footing or err: the knife slips, a speaker slips. Transitively, someone passes something covertly or evades a pursuer: she slips him a note, the thief slips his guards. With out or off, it describes something moving out of place. The same spelling is also the plural noun, so "he slips" and "betting slips" are grammatically unrelated.

3. 3
   nounplural

   In cricket, the region of the field beside the wicketkeeper on the off side, or the fielders stationed there to catch balls edged off the bat.

   He was caught in the slips off the very first delivery of the match.

   The captain packed the slips with three fielders to attack the new ball.

   Note

   A fielding term that exists only in the plural and nearly always takes the: batters are caught in the slips, and a captain packs the slips to attack. The phrase names both the place and the players posted there. You can say a ball flew to the slips, meaning the area, or that the slips held a catch, meaning the fielders themselves.

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