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• n  (music) a curved line spanning notes that are to be played legato
• n  a disparaging remark
  it is difficult for a woman to understand a man's sensitivity to any slur on his virility
• n  a blemish made by dirt
• v  play smoothly or legato
  the pianist slurred the most beautiful passage in the sonata
• v  speak disparagingly of; e.g., make a racial slur
  your comments are slurring your co-workers
• v  utter indistinctly
• v  become vague or indistinct

• Allen claimed he made it up, not knowing that it was an offensive slur used by colonial whites in Africa.
• Chinese kids can be forgiven for thinking Japan is a nation of "devils," a slur used without embarrassment in polite Chinese society.
• After cameras caught Spain's national coach using a racist slur to describe Thierry in 2004, he could have lost his cool.

• aspersion
• smudge
• spot
• blot
• daub
• smear
• smirch
• blur
• dim

• focus

News & Articles

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• Don’t root, root, root for the fighting ‘Racial Slurs’
  One cannot arbitrarily decide that a word suddenly means something other than what it always has, writes Leonard Pitts Jr. That didn’t stop those who defend the Washington football team whose nickname is a racial slur.
  June 16, 2013 - Seattle Times
• ‘Dealin’ With Idiots’: Check out the poster for Jeff Garlin’s new baseball comedy — EXCLUSIVE
  It is no slur on the good name of funnyman Jeff Garlin (well, not too much of one, anyway) to
  June 14, 2013 - Entertainment Weekly
• Racial slur on sign shocks neighbors in Gladstone
  A sign containing a racial slur that hangs from a Gladstone man's garage has raised some eyebrows in his neighborhood.
  June 10, 2013 - KATU Portland

Quotes

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• Brendan Nelson in Sydney Morning Herald
  Opposition leader Brendan Nelson said: "It is an outrageous slur on the previous government for anybody to suggest that by not further increasing the excise or tax on these alcoholic drinks, that in some way has led to their abuse. The government,...
• John Edwards in CNN International
  Ann Coulter's use of an anti-gay slur yesterday was un-American and indefensible,Edwards said in a posting on his Web site, www.johnedwards.com. "In America, we strive for equality and embrace diversity. The kind of hateful language she...
• David Miliband in guardian.co.uk
  Such claims were "a slur both on myself and the government", Miliband told Radio 4's Today programme. "We have been scrupulous in saying this decision should be made by the Scottish authorities; we have been scrupulous in saying that to the...