Slippery

Definition: Slippery

Slippery

Adjective

1. Being such as to cause things to slip or slide; "slippery sidewalks"; "a slippery bar of soap"; "the streets are still slippy from the rain".

2. Not to be trusted; "how extraordinarily slippery a liar the camera is"- James Agee.

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "slippery" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references)

Note: Slippery \Slip"per*y\, adjective. [See Slipper,]. (references)

Synonyms: Slippery

Cunning

Adjective: cunning, crafty, artful; skillful; subtle, feline, vulpine; cunning as a fox, cunning as a serpent; deep, deep laid; profound; designing, contriving; intriguing;Verb: strategic, diplomatic, politic, Machiavelian, timeserving; artificial; tricky, tricksy; wily, sly, slim, insidious, stealthy; underhand; (hidden); subdolous; deceitful; slippery as an eel, evasive; crooked; arch, pawky, shrewd, acute; sharp, sharp as a tack, sharp as a needle; canny, astute, leery, knowing, up to snuff, too clever by half, not to be caught with chaff.

Danger

At stake, in question; precarious, critical, ticklish; slippery, slippy; hanging by a thread; Verb: with a halter round one's neck; between the hammer and the anvil, between Scylla and Charybdis, between a rock and a hard place, between the devil and the deep blue sea, between two fires; on the edge of a precipice, on the brink of a precipice, on the verge of a precipice, on the edge of a volcano; in the lion's den, on slippery ground, under fire; not out of the wood.

Facility

Manageable, wieldy; towardly, tractable; submissive; yielding, ductile; suant; pliant; (soft); glib, slippery; smooth; on friction wheels, on velvet.

Improbity

False-hearted, disingenuous; unfair, one-sided; double, double-hearted, double-tongued, double-faced; timeserving, crooked, tortuous,insidious, Machiavelian, dark, slippery; fishy; perfidious, treacherous, perjured.

Oblivion

Short memory, treacherous memory, poor memory, loose memory, slippery memory, failing memory; decay of memory, failure of memory, lapse of memory; waters of Lethe, waters of oblivion.

Pitfall

Noun: rocks, reefs, coral reef, sunken rocks, snags; sands, quicksands; syrt, syrtis; Goodwin sands, sandy foundation; slippery ground; breakers, shoals, shallows, bank, shelf, flat, lee shore, ironbound coast; rock ahead, breakers ahead.

Smoothness

Phrase: smooth as silk;Phrase: smooth as silk; slippery as coonshit on a pump handle; slippery as a greased pig.

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).

Tergiversation

Adjective: changeful; irresolute; ductile, slippery as an eel, trimming, ambidextrous, timeserving; coquetting; Verb:

Transientness

Adjective: transient, transitory, transitive; passing, evanescent, fleeting, cursory, short-lived, ephemeral; flying; Verb: fugacious, fugitive; shifting, slippery; spasmodic; instantaneous, momentaneous.

Uncertainty

Fallible, questionable, precarious, slippery, ticklish, debatable, disputable; unreliable, untrustworthy.

Unctuousness

Adjective: unctuous, oily, oleaginous, adipose, sebaceous; unguinous; fat, fatty, greasy; waxy, butyraceous, soapy, saponaceous, pinguid, lardaceous; slippery.

Crosswords: Slippery

Sometimes when you grease the palm, it makes the fingers slippery. (Dark Angel; writing credit: Ben Aaronovitch; Mark Ezra)

It's slippery! (Major Payne; writing credit: Joe Connelly; Bob Mosher)

Slippery he say. You think Charlie cares anything about slippery (Major Payne; writing credit: Joe Connelly; Bob Mosher)

Oh? I thought it was slippery when wet. (Salvador; writing credit: Oliver Stone ; Rick Boyle)

Six slippery snails, slid slowly seaward. (references; author: unknown)

Slippery Slippers (1962)

The Slippery Pearls (1931)

How Slippery Slim Saw the Show (1915)

Slippery Slim and the Claim Agent (1914)

High Life Hits Slippery Slim (1914)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

References

• Slippery Rock Financial Corp: International Competitive Benchmarks and Financial Gap Analysis (reference)

  (more reference examples)

Books

• A Very Slippery Fellow: The Life of Sir Robert Wilson, 1777-1849 (reference)

• It's a Slippery Slope (reference)

• Slippery Substance, A [DOWNLOAD: MICROSOFT READER] (reference)

• The Edge of Danger: Is a Slippery Place (reference)

• Upon This Slippery Rock: Countering Claims to Roman Catholic Authority (reference)

  (more book examples)

Theater & Movies

• Slippery When Wet (reference)

• Bon Jovi: Slippery When Wet - The Videos (reference)

  (more DVD examples; more video examples)

Music

• It's A Slippery Slope (reference)

• Slippery When Wet [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] (reference)

  (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Such slippery streets!. Credit: Library of Congress.

Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

The rain and the wind redoubled, the roof was slippery.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Health

Wear thick, soft socks and avoid wearing slippery stockings, mended stockings, or stockings with seams. (references)

Business

As an indicator of the entry level in the market place, the third top company in 1997 in the state market was ranked only 17th in 1988, and the third ranked firm in the private sector in 1989 had fallen to 6th by 1998, etc. The top spot in the pharmaceutical industry is very slippery because of innovation. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Expressions using "slippery": be on the slippery slope ♦ slippery as a greased pig ♦ slippery as an eel ♦ slippery as glass ♦ slippery conditions warning system ♦ slippery dick ♦ slippery elm ♦ slippery question ♦ slippery road ♦ Slippery Rock ♦ slippery surface. Additional references.

Beginning with "slippery": slippery-bodied, slippery-tongued.

Ending with "slippery": blood-slippery, butter-slippery, non-slippery.

Albanian

rrëshqitës (elusory, running, slide, sliding, slimy, slippy), i rrëshqitshëm (greasy, slippy, soapy), dredharak (cunning, dodger, guileful, shifty, slyboots, tricky). (various references)

Arabic 

‏فاسق (bawdy, debauched, degraded, dissipated, dissolute, don juan, fornicator, immoral, lascivious, lecherous, lewd, libertine, licentious, light, lubricious, miscreant, obscene, philanderer, profligate, punk, raffish, rakish, scab, scarlet, unchaste, uninhibited, wanton), ‏متزعزع (insecure, precarious, rickety, shaky, unstable, unsteady, wonky), ‏غامض (abstruse, ambiguous, cloudy, deep, dim, double faced, dreamy, enigmatic, evasive, fuzzy, grave, hazy, impenetrable, incomprehensible, indecisive, indefinite, indeterminate, indistinct, indistinguishable, inscrutable, intangible, lax, magic, magical, misty, mysterious, mystic, nebulous, obscure, occult, opaque, puzzling, recondite, secret, shady, sketchy, sloppy, uncertain, unintelligible, vague, woolly), ‏زلق (lubricate, lubricious, slick, slip, slippy, slither, sweep, unctuous), ‏زالق (slidering, soapy), ‏زالج (rolling). (various references)

Bulgarian 

хлъзгав (lubricous, slick), опасен (adventurous, awkward, breakneck, dangerous, hazardous, hot, insecure, lively, parlous, perilous, pestiferous, precarious, redoubtable, risky, rocky, rum, rummy, slippy, trappy, ugly, unchancy, unsafe, unsure, virulent, volatile, warm), ненадежден (fly-by-night, shaky, trustless, unreliable, wonky), безскрупулен (conscienceless, ruthless, sharp, slim, slippy, smart, unconscionable, unconscious, unscrupulous), плъзгав (greasy, slippy), деликатен (considerate, delicate, fastidious, fine, fragile, nice, pernickety, prickly, slender, slippy, soft, tender, thoughtful, ticklish). (various references)

Chinese 

瀡 , 溜滑, 滑溜 , 滑 (comical, cunning, smooth). (various references)

Czech

slizký, kluzký (glassy, greasy, lubricous). (various references)

Danish

kurser, der vedrører glatførekørsel (lessons on driving on slippery surfaces), glat vejbane (greasy road, slippery road), glat vej (greasy road, slippery road), fedtet vejbane (greasy road, slippery road), fedtet vej (greasy road, slippery road). (various references)

Dutch

glibberig, glad (smooth). (various references)

Esperanto

glitiga, glita. (various references)

Farsi 

لیز (Glib, Slab, Slick, Slimy, Slipper), لغزنده (Rattletrap, Slide, Slipover, Slipper), لغزان , دشوار (Arduous, Difficult, Hard, Inexplicable, Intolerable, Laborious, Onerous, Sore, Spiny, Sticky, Strait, Tough, Uphill), بی ثبات (Impermanent, Shifty, Unstable, Variable). (various references)

Finnish

niljakas (slimy), niljainen (slimy), liukas (smart). (various references)

French

glissant (slick, slide, sliding, slippy). (various references)

German

schlüpfrig (blue, juicy, lascivious, lasciviously, lewd, off color, oozy, risque, salacious, slick, slipperily, slithery), rutschig (slippy), glitschig (greasy, slimy, slippy), aalglatt (glib, greasy, oily, slick, smooth, smoothly). (various references)

Greek 

γλιστερόσ (slippy), γλιστερός, ολισθηρόσ, ολισθηρός. (various references)

Hebrew 

חמקמק (elusive), חלקלק (greasy, skiddy, slick, smooth). (various references)

Hungarian

síkos (glib, greasy, slippy), csúszós (glib, greasy, sloppy). (various references)

Irish

sleamhain. (various references)

Italian

sdrucciolevole (slick, slithery). (various references)

Japanese Kanji 

捉え所の無い (elusive, subtle), 捉え所のない (elusive, subtle), 捕らえ所の無い (elusive, subtle), 捕らえ所のない (elusive, subtle), 滑り易い　 (greasy, slimy), 滑り易い (greasy, slimy), つなぎ目 (a joint, a link, all-night Mah Jongg, aloof, altogether, at all, beyond doubt, certainly, complaining, entirely, extra-high-speed Touhoku-line shinkansen, feeling awkward, gleaming, going long way at steady pace, morose, nitpicking, pointed, sauce for dipping tempura, smooth, sound of walking, surely, tie-together point, to pitchforward, trudgingly), に付き (apiece, appearance, because of, impression, per, regarding, slimy, sociability). (various references)

Japanese Katakana 

すべりやすい (greasy, slimy), ぬらぬら (slimy), ぬるぬる (slimy), つるつる (smooth), とらえどころのない (elusive, subtle). (various references)

Korean 

미끄러운. (various references)

Manx

skyrraghtagh (glancing, glancing as blow, slider, slipper, slitter), shliawin (insidious, lubricated, skiddy, sleek, smooth, smooth-faced, soapy). (various references)

Pig Latin

ipperyslay.(various references)

Portuguese

escorregadio (lubricous, slick, slippy). (various references)

Portuguese Brazilian

escorregadio. (various references)

Romanian

schimbãtor (capricious, catching, changeable, chequered, choppy, fickle, inconstant, mobile, Moody, moonish, mutable, shifty, switch, unequal, unsettled, unsteady, variable, varied, versatile, volatile), pe care nu se poate conta (shaky), lunecos (glib), luciu (glaze, glitter, glory, gloss, glossiness, luster, lustre, sheen, shine, splendor, splendour), fãrã scrupule (conscienceless, unprincipled), delicat (captious, dainty, delicate, delicately, fine, fine-spun, finicky, fragile, frail, fussy, gentle, gentlemanlike, gently, mellow, nice, queasy, refined, slender, slim, soft, subdued, tactful, tender, thin, ticklish, tricky, weak), şmecher (acute, arch, artful, astute, canny, catchy, clever, crafty, cunning, cute, deep, dodger, downy, leery, sharp, shaver, shifty, slick, sly, slyboots, wise guy), alunecos. (various references)

Russian 

скользкий (greasy, slippy, slithery). (various references)

Scottish

sleamhuinn (slimy, smooth). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

ljigav (lubricous, saponaceous, slimy, slippy), klizav (glib, lubricous, slick, sliding, slippy). (various references)

Spanish

resbaladizo (greasy, skids). (various references)

Swedish

hal (evasive, oily, slick, slithery, smooth), slipprig (indecent, lascivious, obscene, salacious, slithery), halkig, glatt (cheerfully, gaily, glossy, joyfully, merrily, smooth). (various references)

Turkish

zor anlaşılır, kaypak (elusive, greasy, lubricous, shifty, sleek, unctuous, unreliable), kaygan (greasy, lubricious, lubricous, slick, slippy, slithery), kayan (sliding, slithery), hatırlanması zor (forgettable, immemorial), hassas (brittle, climacteric, critical, delicate, emotional, exquisite, fair, feeling, fine, impressible, impressionable, nice, passibile, precision, queasy, quick, raw, responsive, rose water, sensible, sensitive, sore, spoony, squeamish, susceptible, susceptive, tender, thin-skinned, ticklish, tickly, touchy), güvenilmez (beyond belief, discredited, elusive, elusory, faithless, insecure, irresponsible, precarious, shifty, suspicious, treacherous, uncertain, unfaithful, unreliable, unsound, unstable, unsteady, untrustable, untrustworthy, whacky), akılda kalıcı olmayan. (various references)

Turkmen 

sьrзek (ice-crusted), taяganзak (mangle, rink), taяga. (various references)

Ukrainian

слизький (eely, lubricious, slick, slippy), вивертливий (lubricious), делікатний (kid glove, pernickety, persnickety, queasy, scrupulous, ticklish). (various references)

Welsh

llithrig (fluent, glib). (various references)

labilis, levana, leve, levem, levi, levia, levigatis, leviora, leviores, levis, levius, leviusque, lubrico, lubricum, lubricus. (various references)

slipor. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Misspellings

"Slippery" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: clippery, clippety, flippery, sliper, slipery, sloppery. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

-1 letter: lippers, ripples, slipper.

-2 letters: lipper, lisper, perils, pipers, pliers, plyers, ripely, ripple, ripply, sipper, slippy.

-3 letters: liers, lippy, lyres, peril, peris, perps, piers, piles, piper, pipes, plier, plies, plyer, preps, preys, pries, prise, pyres, reply, repps, riels, riles, riley, ripes, slier, slipe, slyer, slype, speil, speir, spiel, spier, spile, spire, spiry, yelps, yipes.

+2 letters: perilymphs, polyparies.

+3 letters: hyperplasia, hyperploids, purposively, resupplying.

+4 letters: hyperplasias, hyperplastic, oppressively, papyrologies, polydisperse.

+5 letters: amphiprostyle, apprehensibly, hyperlipemias, hyperphysical, hyperploidies, oversupplying, perspectively, perspicuously, precipitously, prepositively, presumptively, prospectively, pyrophyllites, superphysical.