slurring

Pluralslurrings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of slur.

   The violinist was slurring the notes of the opening phrase into one long line.

   The report kept slurring over the safety failures, giving them a single vague sentence.

   Note

   Because slur means both running sounds together and speaking slightingly of someone, slurring needs its object to be read: slurring her words is indistinct speech, slurring a rival is insult. With over it means passing lightly across something awkward, and to a musician slurring notes means joining them legato, with no break between them.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   An indistinct running together of sounds, as in speech or a heartbeat, or an instance of it.

   Sudden slurring of speech can be a warning sign of a stroke.

   The old recording was full of slurrings where the singer ran one word into the next.

3. 3
   nouncountable or uncountable

   In written music, a slur mark: the curved line telling a player to connect the notes under it smoothly.

   Editors disagree about the slurrings in the manuscript, since the composer's pen strokes are hard to read.

   The pianist penciled in her own slurring above the melody.

   Note

   In writing about scores, the plural names the slur marks a source actually contains: Peter Williams, in Bach, Handel, Scarlatti: Tercentenary Essays, writes of "puzzling slurrings and staccato markings" in the primary sources of the organ music. Without a plural, the slurring of a passage is its pattern of slurs taken as a whole.

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