I am curious how would you translate this sentence

Question

My two questions are related to "slid out" and "prophetic metaphor".

Patrice opened the minivan's sliding door and the large ceramic plate that had held the bagels she took to church slid out. In a moment that was hard not to take as a prophetic metaphor, it shattered on the driveway.

I checked slide out and it means that something to slip or glide, but what is the meaning here - I guess is used like a noun?

Second question: "prophetic metaphor" I checked and it is hard to understand why those two words are used in this case and why not "that was not hard to" instead of "that was hard not to take" ...

I am curious.

Answer 1

The plate slid out of the open door and smashed into pieces when it hit the ground.

The large ceramic plate ... slid out.

To slide, intransitive verb.

"Prophetic metaphor"

It was hard not to regard that event as an omen, as prefiguring something to come.

The placement of the negative there conveys the idea that she was unable to dismiss the event as meaningless. If the negative were placed before hard it would mean that she found it easy to see the event as meaningful.