Literary notes about slide (AI summary)
In literature, "slide" functions as a multifaceted term that denotes both physical motion and metaphorical transitions. It is employed to convey the effortless, smooth movement of objects, bodies, and even abstract ideas—from a character descending into oblivion ([1]), to the precise motion of mechanical components and mathematical constructs ([2], [3]), and the gentle, almost imperceptible shifts in mood or emotion ([4], [5]). The word also captures the gradual passage of time or the act of letting matters pass by without resistance ([6], [7]), and it can even illustrate dynamic physical actions such as gliding across ice or sliding down a hillside ([8], [9], [10]). This varied usage enriches the narrative, lending both literal and figurative layers to descriptions of movement and change ([11], [12]).
- Let the whole world slide down and over the edge of oblivion, he would stand alone.
— from The Rainbow by D. H. Lawrence - Slide b into the fourth column, and c may produce four new solutions.
— from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney - SETTING OF THE SLIDE-VALVE AND ECCENTRIC.
— from How it Works by Archibald Williams - We were fatigued by the contest, which was produced by my want of caution; and he was not then in the humour to slide into easy and cheerful talk.
— from Boswell's Life of Johnson by James Boswell - As he turned aside his face a minute, I saw a tear slide from under the sealed eyelid, and trickle down the manly cheek.
— from Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë - But as they never saw the Overbrooks, they forgot them, and after a month or two they said, “That really was the best way, just to let it slide.
— from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis - I let things slide, and I am growing old.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant - Of course I wanted to slide down and get it out of there, but I dasn’t try it.
— from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain - The young men capered along with their hands in their pockets, and sometimes tried a slide on the icy sidewalk.
— from My Ántonia by Willa Cather - Walk if you can, if not drag yourself along—slide, if nothing else is possible.
— from A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne - And away went the good-tempered old fellow down the slide, with a rapidity which came very close upon Mr. Weller, and beat the fat boy all to nothing.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens - It will be seen at once how the two pieces slide together in a diagonal direction.
— from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney
