I guess people who speak American and Philippine English will unanimously agree that the word "slut" is a very offensive term referring to a promiscuous woman. However, Merriam-Webster and Oxford Advanced Learner's also attach another meaning to the word–a slovenly woman–and this is supposedly chiefly British.
slut: a lazy, careless, or slovenly woman : slattern (that slut of a housekeeper — Margaret Kennedy) –Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary
To speakers of British English: how often would one use the word "slut" in reference to a messy or untidy woman? Is this usage current or obsolescent?
Best Answer
I'm British - and definitely getting to be the wrong side of "middle-aged", which may have a bearing. But so far as I'm concerned, slut primarily means the first definition in OED...
Nor do I disagree with their second definition...
That second definition could include anything from a woman who (provocatively or carelessly) shows more bare flesh than is proper, to one who indulges in casual sex more often than most.
But I personally would never extend it to mean "a women who trades sex for money" except where all the above attributes applied anyway, and were more relevant to my context.
But all such words have not only an inherent range of meanings in and of themselves; different people have widely differing value judgements concerning cleanliness, tidiness, sexuality, etc. Not to mention which there are the figurative and facetious usages. Many a male has been accused of whoring himself to [whatever the writer disapproves of].
Use of sexually-loaded terms is also significantly influenced by "publicly-acknowledged morality", as portrayed in the media, and that can vary widely by country. I've recently watched several American "Coming-of-age / High school/college" movies. It took me a while to realise that in that context, blow-jobs are usually seen as "normal, heavy petting", whereas penetrative sex is usually classed as "whoring" regardless of whether anyone actually paid for it. That's Hollywood for you. British movies don't often feature oral sex - but if they do, it's more like "getting to fourth base" (where third base is intercourse).
EDIT: I prefaced this answer by pointing out that it's only a British perspective (which is what OP asked for anyway). But my gut feeling was that younger Brits don't even use slut - they use slag for "promiscuous female or male", and slob for "untidy/dirty/lazy person" (again, unisex).
Google NGrams appears to support my feeling. Check this chart to see how slut has steadily risen in the AmE corpus in recent decades (switch to the BrE corpus and you'll see a corresponding fall). And check this chart to see how she's a slag has gained currency in the BrE corpus (switch to the AmE corpus to see that Americans simply don't use that word often enough to chart usage at all).
It may therefore be true that on the relatively few occasions when younger Brits do come across slut in their native land, they might tend to ascribe it the modern American sense - simply because that's the one they're most likely to have encountered through international media, movies, etc.