nursery slopes
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
Easy hillsides on which beginners learn to ski.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “nursery slopes” mean?
Easy hillsides on which beginners learn to ski.
Is “nursery slopes” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.