Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Oily |
OilyAdjective1. Containing an unusual amount of grease or oil; "greasy hamburgers"; "oily fried potatoes"; "oleaginous seeds". 2. Unpleasantly and excessively suave or ingratiating in manner or speech; "buttery praise"; "gave him a fulsome introduction"; "an oily sycophantic press agent"; "oleaginous hypocrisy"; "smarmy self-importance"; "the unctuous Uriah Heep". 3. Coated or covered with oil; "oily puddles in the streets". 4. Smeared or soiled with grease or oil; "greasy coveralls"; "get rid of rubbish and oily rags". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "oily" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1598. (references) |
Note: Oily \Oil"y\, adjective. [Comparative Oilier; superlative Oiliest.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Food & Agriculture | Term applied to wines having an oily appearance and which pour in a viscous stream. The condition is caused by bacterial attack. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: OilySynonyms: buttery (adj), fulsome (adj), greasy (adj), oleaginous (adj), sebaceous (adj), smarmy (adj), unctuous (adj). (additional references) |
| Synonyms by domain: oiliest (food & agriculture). |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Courtesy | Fine spoken, fair spoken, soft-spoken; honey-mouthed, honey-tongued; oily, bland; obliging, conciliatory, complaisant, complacent; obsequious. |
Flattery | Adjective: flattering;Verb: adulatory; mealy-mouthed, honey-mouthed; honeyed; smooth, smooth-tongued; soapy, oily, unctuous, |
Moderation | Unexciting, unirritating; soft, bland, oily, demulcent, lenitive, anodyne; hypnotic; sedative; antiorgastic, anaphrodisiac. |
Servility | Adjective: servile, obsequious; supple,supple as a glove; soapy, oily, pliant, cringing, abased, dough-faced, fawning, slavish, groveling, sniveling, mealy-mouthed; beggarly, sycophantic, parasitical; abject, prostrate, down on ones marrowbones; base, mean, sneaking; crouching; Verb: |
Smoothness | Adjective: smooth; polished; Verb: leiodermatous, slick, velutinous; even; level; plane; (flat); sleek, glossy; silken, silky; lanate, downy, velvety; glabrous, slippery, glassy, lubricous, oily, soft, unwrinkled; smooth as glass, smooth as ice, smooth as monumental alabaster, smooth as velvet, smooth as oil; slippery as an eel; woolly; (feathery). |
Unctuousness | Adjective: unctuous, oily, oleaginous, adipose, sebaceous; unguinous; fat, fatty, greasy; waxy, butyraceous, soapy, saponaceous, pinguid, lardaceous; slippery. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Oily |
| Specialty definitions using "oily": AIPHANES CARYOTIFOLIA, ATTALEA AMYGDALINA ♦ benzaldehyde ♦ coal liquefaction, COROZO OLEIFERA ♦ enanthate ♦ fat pneumonia ♦ lipid pneumonia, lipoid pneumonia, lubricants ♦ norethisterone enanthate, norethisterone oenanthate, Norigest, Noristerat, Nur-Isterate ♦ oil aspiration pneumonia, Oleaginous, Orlistat ♦ Pneumonia, Lipid, pneumonolipoidosis ♦ selective agglomeration, Silicone Oils. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "oily": Oleosity. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | He's already asked me if Rudy is an oily variety beau hunk (Sixteen Candles; writing credit: John Hughes) | |
Tongue Twisters | Awful old Ollie oils oily autos. (references; author: unknown) Old oily Ollie oils old oily autos. (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Oily Bird (1954) Oily Hare (1952) The Oily Bird (1928) An Oily Scoundrel (1916) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Oily mud near marsh grass plugs. Credit: NOAA Restoration Center. |  | Oily mud at the site. Credit: NOAA Restoration Center. |
 | Pearl Harbor bombing. California hit. Battered by aerial bombs and torpedoes, the USS California settles slowly into the mud and muck of Pearl Harbor. Clouds of black, oily smoke pouring up from the California and her stricken sister ships conceal all but. Credit: Library of Congress. | ||
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
James Thomson | A little, round, fat, oily man of God. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | Al drove the truck up on the oily ground in front of the shed |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | In Parkinson's disease, it is common for the skin on the face to become very oily, particularly on the forehead and at the sides of the nose. The scalp may become oily too, resulting in dandruff. (references) | |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | OLEAGINOUS, adj. Oily, smooth, sleek. Disraeli once described the manner of Bishop Wilberforce as "unctuous, oleaginous, saponaceous." And the good prelate was ever afterward known as Soapy Sam. For every man there is something in the vocabulary that would stick to him like a second skin. His enemies have only to find it. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Oily" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Oily" is used about 281 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 100% | 281 | 17,410 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "oily": oily grain ♦ oily palm. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "oily": oily-haired, oily-handed, oily-pawed, oily-pelted, oily-rag, oily-smooth. | |
Ending with "oily": non-oily. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "oily"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | vajor (oleaginous, unctuous), vaji (oil), me vaj, i vajisur. (various references) | |
Arabic | متملق (blandly, coaxing, courtly, fawning, ingratiating, insinuating, oleaginous, slimy, smooth, soapy, unctuous, wheedling), مداهن (blandly, unctuous), زيتي (greasy, oil, ornamental, unctuous), شحمي, دسم (add fat, be fat, creamy, fatty, rich). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | мазен (fat, fatty, greasy, mellow, oleaginous, pinguid, rich, sleek, slimy, soapy, treacly, unctuous, yolky), ласкателен (adulatory, buttery, flattering, honeyed, honey-mouthed, smooth, well oiled), импрегниран с масло. (various references) | |
Chinese | 油腻 (greasy), 油油 . (various references) | |
Czech | olejový (oleic), olejnatý (oleaginous), mastný (fatty, greasy, unctuous), lichotivý (complimentary, flattering, sugary). (various references) | |
Danish | oliet, olieglat, olieagtig. (various references) | |
Dutch | olieachtig (ropy). (various references) | |
Farsi | چرب (Fat, Fatty, Greasy, Sebaceous, Unctuous), روغنی (Greasy, Unctuous). (various references) | |
Finnish | öljymäinen, öljyinen (ropy). (various references) | |
French | huileux. (various references) | |
German | ölig (greasy, oilily, oleaginous). (various references) | |
Greek | γλοιώδης (gooey, sleek, viscid, viscous), ελαιώδησ (oleaginous, oleic, unctuous, unguentary), ελαιώδης (ropy), λιπαρόσ (fatty, greasy, oleaginous, tallowy, unctuous), λαδωμένοσ, λαδερόσ. (various references) | |
Hebrew | שמ י (greasy), שמ ו י (fattish, greasy, unctuous), שומ י (adipose, greasy), שפכ י (juicy, succulent). (various references) | |
Hungarian | olajos (oil bearing, oiled, oleaginous, unctuous), zsíros (blubbery, fat, fatty, greasy, gross, pinguid, unctuous), kenetteljes (greasy, sanctified, sanctimonial, sanctimonious, unctuous). (various references) | |
Indonesian | berminyak (greasy). (various references) | |
Italian | oleoso (oleaginous). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 脂ぎった (greasy), 脂濃い (fatty, greasy), 脂っ濃い (fatty, greasy), 脂っ"い (fatty, greasy), 油状 , 油性 , 油っ濃い (fatty, greasy). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | あぶらぎった (greasy), あぶらっ"い (fatty, greasy), ゆせい (oil well), ゆじょう. (various references) | |
Korean | 성 (meteor, meteoric, Oilier, Oiliest). (various references) | |
Manx | ooillagh (unctuous). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | oilyay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | oleoso (fatty, greasy, lardy, oleaginous, pinguid, unctuous). (various references) | |
Romanian | onctuos (greasy, oilily, unctuous), unsuros (fat, fatty, fattyoleous, greasy, sleek, smeary, sticky, unctuous), uleios (sleek), mieros (cajoling, greasy, honeyed, ingratiating, oilily, silky, sleek, smooth, smooth-faced, soapy, sugary, unctuous), insinuant (insinuating, insinuative, officious, silky), gras (beefy, corpulent, fat, fatty, greasy, handsomely, porky, puffy, pursy, rich, rotund, sticky, stout, unctuous, well fed), îmbibat cu ulei. (various references) | |
Russian | масляный (buttery, butyric, oil), маслянистый (emulsive, oleaginous, pinguid, unctuous), масленый, жирный (adipose, bloated, corpulent, fat, fatty, lardy, obese, pinguid, porky, rank, tallowy, thick). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | zejtinast, uljast (oleaginous, unctuous), slatkorečiv (honeymouthed, mealymouthed, silver-tongued, smooth spoken, smooth tongued), natopljen uljem. (various references) | |
Spanish | aceitoso. (various references) | |
Swedish | oljig (fat, fatty, greasy, oleaginous, pinguid, unctuous), fet (adipose, bold, corpulent, fat, fatty, fleshly, fleshy, full-fed, greasy, lardy, obese, pinguid, rich, thick). (various references) | |
Thai | เหมือนกับน้ำมัน, บุหรี่ (cig, cigaret, cigarette, ciggy, coffin nail, fag, faggerette, tab), ู่เป็นมัน, ัที่ประจบประแจงง. (various references) | |
Turkish | yaltakçı (adulatory, bootlicker, crawler, creep, creeper, cringing, greaser, groveler, groveller, lickspittle, obsequious, servile, slime, slimy, smarmy, wheedling), yağlı (adipose, fat, fatty, greasy, oiled, oleaginous, sebaceous, smeary, tallowy, unctuous), yağcı (apple polisher, buttery, crawler, deadhead, flatterer, greaser, greasy, gushing, gushy, lickspittle, loader, obsequious, oleaginous, reptilian, silky, sleek, slime, soapy, suck, sucker, toady), çok yağlı (superfatted). (various references) | |
Turkmen | яagly (bun). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | улесливий (adulatory, bland, candied, fawning, honeyed, obsequious, silky, sleeky, suave, wheedling), сальний (greasy, lardy, porky, sebaceous, suety, tallowy), "лейний (churchy, saponaceous, sleek, soapy, unctuous), оліїстий (oleaginous), олійний (oil, oleaginous, oleic), маслянистий (buttery, oil, oleaginous, unctuous), засмальцьований, жирний (adipose, bacony, beefy, bloated, creamy, fat, fatty, greasy, lardy, oleaginous, pinguid, smeary, yolky), підлесливий (adulatory, courtly, smarmy, sycophantic, well oiled), покритий олі"ю, покритий маслом, догідливий (adulatory, ancillary, compliant, courtly, obsequious, officious, sneaking, supple). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | trơn như dầu có dầu, trôi chảy nịnh hót, như dầu, nhờn như dầu, lem luốc dầu trơn tru, giấy dầu (oil-paper), đầy dầu. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | lubricus, pinguis, uncta, uncti, unctum, unctus, unctusque. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words ending with "oily": doily, noily, nonoily, roily. (additional references) | |
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"Oily" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: aily, Boilly, boily, eily, foily, Ily, iol, ioli, Ioy, Moily, noily, obly, odil, oeil, oele, Oelf, oey, ogil, Ogilby, Ohiya, ohly, oial, Oiel, oiky, Oikya, oila, Oile, oiley, oilie, oill, Oilp, oirl, oiy, Ojl, oli, olig, olim, olivy, olix, oly, onil, ooky, Oolie, orli, orly, osily, Otilia, Oulg, Owinyi, owly, oxil, oyl, Oysley, poily, uil, voily. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "oily" (pronounced oy"lē) |
| 3 | oy" l ē | coyly, doily. |
| 2 | -l ē | abruptly, absolutely, absurdly, abundantly, abysmally, academically, accidentally, accidently, ably, abnormally, accordingly, accumulatively, accurately, accusingly, acidly, acoustically, actively, actually, acutely, adamantly, additionally, adequately, administratively, admirably, admiringly, admittedly, adroitly, adversely, advisedly, aerobically, aerodynamically, aesthetically, affectionately, affectively, affirmatively, aggressively, agonizingly, agriculturally, aimlessly, alarmingly, alchemically, algebraically, allegedly, allele, alley, alphabetically, alternately, alternatively, amazingly, ambitiously, amiably, amicably, amply, amusingly, analytically, anatomically, anecdotally, anencephaly, angelically, angrily, annually, anomaly, anonymously, anxiously, apologetically, appallingly, apparently, appealingly, appreciably, appreciatively, appropriately, approvingly, approximately, aptly, arbitrarily, architecturally, archly, ardently, arguably, arrogantly, artfully, artificially, artistically, assembly, assertedly, assertively, assiduously, assuredly, astonishingly, astoundingly, astronomically, astutely, athletically, attentively, attractively, audibly, austerely, authentically, authoritatively, automatically, autonomously, avidly, avowedly, awesomely, awfully, awkwardly, badly, Bailey, Bailie, baldly, bally, barely, barley, basically, bearishly, beautifully, belatedly, belly, beneficially, benignly, bialy, bilaterally, Billie, Billy, bimonthly, biologically, bitterly, biweekly, blandly, blankly, blatantly, blindly, blissfully, blithely, bluntly, bodily, boldly, botanically, bracingly, bravely, brazenly, breathlessly, breathtakingly, briefly, brightly, brilliantly, briskly, broadly, broccoli, Brolly, brotherly. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "i-l-o-y" | |
-1 letter: oil. | |
-2 letters: li, lo, oy, yo. | |
| Words containing the letters "i-l-o-y" | |
+1 letter: doily, noily, roily. | |
+2 letters: aliyos, aliyot, bodily, cosily, cozily, dozily, foxily, gorily, hokily, holily, homily, jokily, logily, nosily, oilily, oilway, oozily, ploidy, pokily, policy, polity, polypi, pylori, ropily, rosily, xyloid. | |
+3 letters: acyloin, alimony, aliyoth, amyloid, billowy, biology, bonnily, boozily, bossily, cloying, coalify, cockily, colicky, cornily, cycloid, dicotyl, doomily, dottily, dowdily, doylies, epiboly, foamily, foggily, glorify, godlily, goofily, goutily, hoarily, holiday, hornily, horsily, hyaloid, hyoidal, ignobly, indoxyl, jointly, jollify, jollily, jollity, joltily, killjoy, linkboy, loftily, lousily, moistly, mollify, moodily, moonily, mousily, myeloid, nobbily, noisily, nonoily, oilways, olivary, orality, ovality, oxyphil, phonily, pillory, pillowy, piously, ploying, pockily, podgily, polynyi, priorly, prosily, pyloric, roomily, roupily, rowdily, showily, smokily, snowily, soapily, soggily, solidly, sootily, sorrily, soymilk, stonily, styloid, thionyl, toylike, trilogy, tylosin, willowy, woozily, wordily, xylitol, yodling, yolkier, yowling. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Familiar 8. Quotations: Fiction | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Translations: Ancient 15. Derivations 16. Rhymes | 17. Anagrams 18. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
