slash-and-burn
adjective
1
: characterized or developed by felling and burning trees to clear land especially for temporary agriculture
2
: extremely ruthless and unsparing
slash-and-burn tactics
slash-and-burn criticism
Synonyms
- affectless
- callous
- case-hardened
- cold-blooded
- compassionless
- desensitized
- hard
- hard-boiled
- hard-hearted
- heartless
- indurate
- inhuman
- inhumane
- insensate
- insensitive
- ironhearted
- merciless
- obdurate
- pachydermatous
- pitiless
- remorseless
- ruthless
- soulless
- stony
- stoney
- stonyhearted
- take-no-prisoners
- thick-skinned
- uncharitable
- unfeeling
- unmerciful
- unsparing
- unsympathetic
Examples of slash-and-burn in a Sentence
under his slash-and-burn management ethic, even longtime employees were summarily downsized for the sake of corporate competitiveness
Recent Examples on the Web
The 2024 holidays were incessantly interrupted by slash-and-burn politics, from the ongoing furor over President-elect Donald Trump’s controversial Cabinet picks to the budget crisis at Chicago’s City Hall and the battle to deep-six the Chicago Public Schools chief.
—
Laura Washington, Chicago Tribune, 8 Jan. 2025
In today’s newsletter, Jon Lee Anderson reports on the slash-and-burn austerity measures in Argentina that have earned admiration from Trump acolytes.
—Hannah Jocelyn, The New Yorker, 3 Dec. 2024
Among individual farmers, insecure land tenure encourages the use of slash-and-burn practices, which has led to large-scale deforestation in the rainforests of Brazil and Indonesia.
—Chris Jochnick, Foreign Affairs, 7 Feb. 2017
Consider Sophea, a farmer from one of the 29 villages, who once relied on slash-and-burn agriculture, depleting soil and causing deforestation in the area.
—Suwanna Gauntlett, Forbes, 1 Dec. 2024
Musk’s general concern about the nation’s multi-trillion dollar debt reflects worry among many economists, and his slash-and-burn rhetoric mirrors that of close ally President-elect Donald Trump.
—Max Zahn, ABC News, 26 Nov. 2024
The result was a land rush, during which short-term profiteering from slash-and-burn agriculture prevented anything resembling sustainable development.
—Jeff Tollefson, Foreign Affairs, 11 Feb. 2013
Venture Capital Also Got The Memo An unlikely follower of the value-creation philosophy is a sector previously known or its ruthless slash-and-burn tactics: venture capital.
—Steve Denning, Forbes, 20 Oct. 2024
The tech-first, slash-and-burn approach rarely works.
—Kirill Vladimirovich, Forbes, 2 Oct. 2024
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
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Laura Washington, Chicago Tribune, 8 Jan. 2025
In today’s newsletter, Jon Lee Anderson reports on the slash-and-burn austerity measures in Argentina that have earned admiration from Trump acolytes.
—Hannah Jocelyn, The New Yorker, 3 Dec. 2024
Among individual farmers, insecure land tenure encourages the use of slash-and-burn practices, which has led to large-scale deforestation in the rainforests of Brazil and Indonesia.
—Chris Jochnick, Foreign Affairs, 7 Feb. 2017
Consider Sophea, a farmer from one of the 29 villages, who once relied on slash-and-burn agriculture, depleting soil and causing deforestation in the area.
—Suwanna Gauntlett, Forbes, 1 Dec. 2024
Musk’s general concern about the nation’s multi-trillion dollar debt reflects worry among many economists, and his slash-and-burn rhetoric mirrors that of close ally President-elect Donald Trump.
—Max Zahn, ABC News, 26 Nov. 2024
The result was a land rush, during which short-term profiteering from slash-and-burn agriculture prevented anything resembling sustainable development.
—Jeff Tollefson, Foreign Affairs, 11 Feb. 2013
Venture Capital Also Got The Memo An unlikely follower of the value-creation philosophy is a sector previously known or its ruthless slash-and-burn tactics: venture capital.
—Steve Denning, Forbes, 20 Oct. 2024
The tech-first, slash-and-burn approach rarely works.
—Kirill Vladimirovich, Forbes, 2 Oct. 2024
Dictionary Entries Near slash-and-burn
Cite this Entry
“Slash-and-burn.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slash-and-burn. Accessed 31 Jan. 2025.
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