a system and method of squeezing slabs of memory empty are provided . a slab is a block of allocated memory space that is dedicated to holding one type of data . when it is determined that a slab of memory is to be squeezed empty , no object may be allocated from the slab . that is , new data is precluded from being placed in any unused space of the slab . further , data is also precluded from being placed in any space in the slab that becomes unused anytime thereafter . when the slab becomes empty , the slab is de - allocated .