slalom

noun, verb — 7 senses

slalom

noun

UK /ˈslɑː.ləm/ · US /ˈslɔ.ləm/

Etymology From Norwegian sla (“steep, hill side”) and låm (“trail”).

1

Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports Often The sport of skiing in a zigzag course through gates.

  • Slalom is her strongest Olympic sport.
  • The slalom gates are set closer together.
2

Any similar activity on other vehicles, including canoes and water skis.

  • Disowned by my father... I began an erratic and increasingly steep slalom. Rejected would-be mercenary pilot, failed Jesuit novice, unpublished writer of pornography… yet for all these failures I had a tenacious faith in myself, a messiah as yet without1979, J.G. Ballard, The Unlimited Dream Company, chapter 1:
3

Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports A course used for the sport of slalom.

  • These first two slaloms have sixty gates each.
4

Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports A race or competition wherein participants each perform the sport of slalom.

  • He has won six World Cup slaloms.
5

Abbreviation Short for autoslalom

Derived terms
autoslalom, banked slalom, canoe slalom, giant slalom, GS, kayak slalom, parallel giant slalom, PSG, parallel slalom, PSL, slalomer, slalomist, super giant slalom, Super G, Super-G

slalom

verb

Etymology From Norwegian sla (“steep, hill side”) and låm (“trail”).

1

To race in a slalom.

2

To move in a slalom-like manner.

  • Snow fell, swirled, slalomed past our windows.1988, Edmund White, chapter 3, in The Beautiful Room is Empty, New York: Vintage International, published 1994:
  • Hiro climbs on his bike, eases it through the neighbourhood and onto the street, and then gosses it up to a few hundred miles an hour, slaloming between the stanchions of the monorail, practicing.1992, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, page 365:
1 more example
  • Gerrard plainly had other ideas as he set off on that final, driving run into the opposition penalty area, slaloming between Kamil Glik and Grzegorz Wojtkowiak and getting his shot away as a third defender, Artur Jedzejczyk, and the goalkeeper, Wojciech Szczesny, tried to close him out.2013 October 15, Daniel Taylor, The Guardian:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.

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