Slate One (To)

To criticise, expose in print, show up, reprove. A scholastic term. Rebellious and idle boys are slated, that is, their names are set down on a slate to expose their offence, and some punishment is generally awarded.

“The journalists there lead each other a dance.

If one man slatesʹ another for what he has done,

It is pistols for two, and then coffin for one.”

Punch (The Pugnacious Penmen), 1885.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.