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An early recorded use of slapdash comes from 17th-century British poet and dramatist John Dryden, who used it as an adverb in his play The Kind Keeper. "Down I put the notes slap-dash," he wrote. The Oxford English Dictionary defines this sense, in part, as "with, or as with, a slap and a dash," perhaps suggesting the notion of an action (such as painting) performed with quick, imprecise movements. The adjective slapdash is familiar today describing something done in a hasty, careless, or haphazard manner.
Synonyms
Examples of slapdash in a Sentence
the police department's investigation of the charges against the mayor was slapdash and not very thorough
Recent Examples on the Web
Was all this slapdash music generation serving in some way to devalue music in my life?
Max Vehuni, one half of the indie-pop duo slenderbodies, talked me off that ledge.
—
Chris Velazco, Washington Post, 5 July 2024
All that history means Delta is far from a slapdash app quickly thrown together to take advantage of Apple's new openness to emulation.
—Kyle Orland, Ars Technica, 18 Apr. 2024
But without state licenses, the shops were playing by their own set of rules — no testing, slapdash labeling, no taxes — which even the staunchest legalization advocates feared could choke out the nascent legal industry.
—Nicholas Fandos, New York Times, 12 Apr. 2024
The internet tends to flatten all that, though; a casual user might not know the difference between a trusted source and a slapdash amateur.
—Drew Harwell, Washington Post, 7 Mar. 2024
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Chris Velazco, Washington Post, 5 July 2024
All that history means Delta is far from a slapdash app quickly thrown together to take advantage of Apple's new openness to emulation.
—Kyle Orland, Ars Technica, 18 Apr. 2024
But without state licenses, the shops were playing by their own set of rules — no testing, slapdash labeling, no taxes — which even the staunchest legalization advocates feared could choke out the nascent legal industry.
—Nicholas Fandos, New York Times, 12 Apr. 2024
The internet tends to flatten all that, though; a casual user might not know the difference between a trusted source and a slapdash amateur.
—Drew Harwell, Washington Post, 7 Mar. 2024
See all Example Sentences for slapdash
Dictionary Entries Near slapdash
Cite this Entry
“Slapdash.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slapdash. Accessed 25 Dec. 2024.
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slapdash
adjective
slap·dash
ˈslap-ˌdash 
-ˈdash
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