What does slewed mean?
Slewed is the past tense and past participle of slew, a verb meaning to turn or rotate sharply. Its best-known nautical use refers to a ship or boat changing direction abruptly: a vessel may be slewed into the wind, around a pier, or away from a hazard. In informal usage, slewed also means intoxicated, often implying that someone is drunk in a clumsy, unsteady, or disoriented way. The two senses can lead to mild verbal humor because the same form can describe both a vessel's deliberate maneuver and a person's loss of coordination. Although the nautical sense is relatively specialized, the drinking sense is widely understood in everyday conversation. The word is normally used for a completed or completed-and-ongoing action when describing a vessel, while the adjective-like intoxicated sense can stand alone or intensify a phrase such as completely slewed.
To turn or rotate sharply, especially a ship or other vessel.
"The captain slewed the ship to avoid the approaching fog."
Usually used in nautical, maritime, or technical contexts.
Informally intoxicated, often in a clumsy or disoriented way.
"He was so slewed after the party that he could not find the door."
Informal and often mildly humorous; the sense can sound less severe than a medical description of intoxication.
Slewed can mean sharply turned in one sense and informally intoxicated in another—a small word with two surprisingly different jobs.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does slewed come from?
The nautical sense comes through Middle English slewen, an old verb meaning to turn, swivel, or rotate. A related form, slue, survives with meanings associated with turning a ship or vessel. The separate sense meaning intoxicated developed later as informal vocabulary and is now especially associated with British and American speech.
How slewed is actually used
The nautical verb is formal and technical, especially in descriptions of vessels. The intoxicated sense is informal and more common in casual British and American English; it can sound mild or humorous rather than severely clinical.
Easily confused with slewed
Slewed means to have turned or rotated sharply, while sleeved means having been fitted with a sleeve or with sleeves.