If you find yourself on a slippery slope, watch out, you could be sliding down a hill. Land that is not level is called a slope. Or you can use the verb, like land that slopes down to sea level.
- Pronunciation: /sləʊp/
- English Description: if the ground or a surface slopes, it is higher at one end than the other
- Chinese Translation: n/v. 斜坡(Xie2 Po1), 倾斜(Qing1 Xie2)
- Spanish Translation: Pendiente
- STORY: Language experts believe the word slope came from the Middle English word aslope, an adverb that means “at an angle.” The word has a noun form you can use for something that is at an angle — on a slope — like a steep hill or the ramp in a parking garage. It also has a verb form that can be used to describe something that slants, like someone's signature with letters that slope to the left or an angled haircut that slopes to cover one eye.
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
- The longer the world hesitates to put global emissions on a downward slope, the harder the cleanup task will be--Washington Post Feb 16, 2015
- We got to Tahoe on Friday, and hit the slopes (=skied on them) the next day.