slay
- Literally
- To kill, originally; in slang, to do something brilliantly.
- Meaning
- Praise for someone who did something with total confidence and style.
- Popular since
- 2016
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What does slay mean?
Slay means someone just performed, and the only correct response is a single word. It works for a look, a speech, a dance, a reply that ended an argument. The word has lost none of its force in the move from the ballroom to the group chat: it still carries the idea of dominance through style, not violence.
Where does slay come from?
The word comes from ballroom culture, the Black and Latino LGBTQ+ scene documented in the 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning, where slay praised a performer who devastated the competition. Drag queens carried it into pop culture through the 2000s and 2010s, and by 2016 captions and comments had made it one of the most durable words in internet praise.
How to use slay
- She walked into the meeting with the new deck and absolutely slayed the presentation.
- New haircut? Slay.
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