slur

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
slur/slɜː(r)/

▶verb (slurs, slurring, slurred)

• 1 (with reference to speech) articulate or be articulated indistinctly.

• 2 pass over (a fact or aspect) so as to conceal or minimize it.

• 3 Music perform (a group of two or more notes) legato.

  ■ mark (notes) with a slur.

• 4 chiefly US make insinuations or allegations about.

▶noun

• 1 an insinuation or allegation.

• 2 an indistinct utterance.

• 3 Music a curved line indicating that notes are to be slurred.

– derivatives
slurred adjective.

– origin ME (as n. in sense ‘thin mud’, later as v. meaning ‘smear’ and ‘disparage’); of unknown origin.