sloped

1. 1
   adjective

   Having a surface that rises or falls at an angle rather than lying level.

   The architect designed a sloped ceiling to follow the line of the roof.

   Vineyards thrive on the sloped hillsides that catch the afternoon sun.

   Similarslanted, inclined, angled, pitched, tilted

   Oppositeflat, level, horizontal

   Note

   The participle has settled into a true adjective, and it compares like one: a more sloped roof, the most sloped of the fields, never with -er. It sits most naturally before a noun naming a built or natural surface, as in a sloped ceiling or a sloped desk. When a sentence says the ceiling sloped, that is the verb's past tense, not this adjective.

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of slope.

   The garden sloped away from the house in neat terraces.

   The old road sloped sharply just before the bridge.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs here. It is the past tense (the road sloped toward the river) and the participle after have (the builders have sloped the roof). The first use runs on its own, and the second takes an object. Every sense of slope passes through this form, so context separates a plain incline from British colloquial sneaking (he sloped out before the speeches) and from drill, where soldiers sloped their rifles onto the shoulder.

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