Merriam-Webster saw huge increase in ‘slimeball’ searches after Trump tweet

When the president of the United States calls the former FBI director he fired a slimeball, it’s hard to interpret the term as anything less than an insult.

Nonetheless, many searched for the definition of “slimeball” Friday morning after President Trump used it in a fiery tweet directed at ex-FBI chief James Comey. Queries for the word spiked 60,000 percent said dictionary Merriam-Webster.

“(Comey) is a weak and untruthful slime ball who was, as time has proven, a terrible Director of the FBI,” the president tweeted.

Excerpts from Comey’s book A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership trickled out earlier this week and it doesn’t paint a flattering portrait of Trump.

Merriam-Webster notes Trump incorrectly broke the word up into “slime ball.” Both words “slime” and “ball” have been around roughly 1,000 years, the dictionary said, but the two weren’t brought together as one until the late 20th Century.

For the record, the noun’s definition is that of “a morally repulsive or odious person.”