a. and adv. [Evidence is wanting to show the exact history of this, and its relation to SLOPE; prob. it is later form of OE. aslopen, pa. pple. of aslúpan, lit. ‘slipped away.’ (cf. awake, acale = OE. awacen, acalen); but it may be f. the simple slope adj. (itself apparently = OE. slopen ‘slipped’) with A- pref. 2. See SLOPE a.
Difficulty attaches to either derivation, as well as to that of slope itself, from the want of instances of slopen, aslopen, or the verbs to which they belonged, between the OE. period and the 15th c.; the second has the additional difficulty that, so far as evidence goes, slope appeared still later than aslope, and may have been an aphetic form. Slope vb. and sb. are comparatively recent derivatives of slope adj. In the absence of evidence, it is impossible to say whether aslope is primarily an adverb, like alive, afloat, or a participial adjective which only follows its sb., like awake, athirst, since these two classes of words run together in use.]
In a position or direction between vertical and horizontal, i.e., that of a body slipping or falling away; as adj. Inclined, slanting, sloping; as adv. On the incline, aslant, obliquely, crosswise, athwart. (The advb. use is the commoner.) Also fig.
[Cf. a. 1230. Ancr. R., 148. Al min hope were etslopen.]
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 4464. Beguiled … For trust that they have set in hope, Which fell hem afterward a slope.
[Cf. 1553–87. Foxe, A. & M., III. 762. You hope and you hope: but your hope shall be slope.]
1482. Caxton, Chron. Eng., ccxliv. 298. That the stake myght be pyght in the erth a slope.
1543. Grafton, Contn. Harding’s Chron., 502. That poynt should be … handled, not euen fully playne and dyrectlye, but touched a slope craftely.
1575. Turberv., Falconrie, 277. You must cut it off with a sharpe penknife aslope.
1597. Douland, Lyrics, in Arb., Garner, IV. 44. Since Fortune still directs my hap aslope.
1599. Warn. Faire Wom., II. 600. My hope is aslope, and my joy is laide to sleepe.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 713. The Haire that lyeth asloape must needs rise.
1667. Milton, P. L., X. 1053. On mee the Curse aslope Glanc’d on the ground.
1727. Swift, City Shower, Wks. 1755, III. II. 38. While the first drizzling show’r is borne aslope.
a. 1732. Gay, Poems (1745), I. 151. Where porters hogsheads roll from carts aslope.
a. 1845. Hood, Captain’s Cow, iii. Against the mast he leans a-slope.
1860. Ruskin, Mod. Paint., V. VIII. ii. § 4. The steps … are now all aslope and broken.
