Sling

How to spell sling

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce sling

What does sling mean?

1. verbTo throw or hurl something with a quick, casual swinging motion.
2. nounA loop of fabric worn around the neck to support an injured arm.
3. nounA strap or loop used to carry, lift, or hold something such as a baby or a heavy load.

Sling in a sentence

• verb

  He would sling his bag onto the back seat before driving off.

• noun

  After the fracture she wore her arm in a sling for six weeks.

• noun

  She carried the newborn in a fabric sling across her chest.

• verb

  The workers would sling bricks up to the scaffold all morning.

• noun

  The nurse adjusted the sling so it took the weight off his elbow.

• noun

  The crane operator checked the sling before lifting the steel beam.

Where does sling come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Sling traces back to a family of northern European words for swinging or hurling, with the verb 'slingen' appearing in Middle English meaning 'to throw with a sudden swinging motion'. It is closely tied to the Old Norse 'slyngva', meaning 'to throw or fling', and to Middle Low German 'slingen', meaning 'to wind, twist, or swing', which is why the word carries both the idea of a circling, looping motion and the idea of casting something away. The weapon called a sling, a leather strap whirled around to launch a stone, captures that original sense of swinging perfectly, and the famous biblical account of David and Goliath kept the word alive in English. From the looping-strap meaning came the modern noun for a support strap that cradles an injured arm or carries a load. Because the word stayed short and phonetic on its way into English, the spelling holds no hidden traps; it simply mirrors the way it sounds.

How the word is built

• sling (single Germanic root; no prefix or suffix)