Meanings
- pluralplural onlyThose who have been killed.
While the Valkyries were the choosers of the valorous slain, they were also obedient to the call of any in distress who asked their help.
1906, Mary Elizabeth Lewis, The Ethics of [Richard] Wagner's “The Ring of the Nibelung”, page 411 more example
[…]Morat ! the proud, the patriot field ! where man ¶ May gaze on ghastly trophies of the slain, ¶ Nor blush for those who conquered on that plain ; ¶ Here Burgundy bequeath'd his tombless host, ¶ A bony heap, through ages to remain, ¶ Themselves their monument ;— the Stygian coast ¶ Unsepulchred they roam'd, and shriek'd each wandering ghost.
1816, Lord Byron, “Canto III”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Canto the Third, London: […] [F]or John Murray, […], →OCLC, stanza LXIII, page 36
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectivekilled; ‘slain’ is formal or literary as in ‘slain warriors’
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with slain
Anagrams
Cite this entry
slain. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/slain
“slain.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/slain. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “slain,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/slain.
Source: slain on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.