- of or having to do with a type of primitive forest agriculture in which fields are cleared by cutting down and burning vegetation
- characterized by indiscriminate or destructive recklessness
slash-and-burn


Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fifth Edition Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Link to this page
Cite this page
MLA Style
"Slash-and-burn." YourDictionary. LoveToKnow. www.yourdictionary.com/slash-and-burn.
APA Style
Slash-and-burn. (n.d.). In YourDictionary. Retrieved from https://www.yourdictionary.com/slash-and-burn
slash-and-burn

adjective
- Of or being a form of agriculture in which an area of forest is cleared by cutting and burning and is then planted, usually for several seasons, before being left to return to forest.
- Drastic or destructive: “The past few years of painful, slash-and-burn expense cutting have made top brokerage executives reluctant to revert to their former, profligate ways” ( David Henry )
THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Link to this page
Cite this page
MLA Style
"Slash-and-burn." YourDictionary. LoveToKnow. www.yourdictionary.com/slash-and-burn.
APA Style
Slash-and-burn. (n.d.). In YourDictionary. Retrieved from https://www.yourdictionary.com/slash-and-burn

Adjective
- Alternative spelling of slash and burn.
Adjective
(not comparable)
Noun
(uncountable)
- A technique in agriculture where plant matter is roughly cut down and then burned over to prepare fields for the next crop.
Verb
(third-person singular simple present slashes and burns, present participle slashing and burning, simple past and past participle slashed and burned or slashed and burnt)
- To apply the slash and burn technique.
- We'll slash and burn this week and plant next.
English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.
Link to this page
Cite this page
MLA Style
"Slash-and-burn." YourDictionary. LoveToKnow. www.yourdictionary.com/slash-and-burn.
APA Style
Slash-and-burn. (n.d.). In YourDictionary. Retrieved from https://www.yourdictionary.com/slash-and-burn