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Webster 1913 Edition

Slats, collectively.

Noun.

The violent shaking or flapping of anything hanging loose in the wind, as of a sail, when being hauled down.

slatting

slatting ‎(plural slattings)

An arrangement of slats.
The violent shaking or flapping of anything hanging loose in the wind, as of a sail when being hauled down.
- 2010, Roger D. Taylor, Mingming and the Art of Minimal Ocean Sailing (page 39)
  Weakened by the strains of sailing in a severe gale and, no doubt, by the accumulated bangings and endless slattings of the previous year's ocean calms, the top batten had fractured, creating an ineffective and unsightly deep V shape in the top sail panel.