slippery
Pronunciation
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.004
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈslɪpəɹi/, /ˈslɪpɹi/
slippery (comparative slipperier, superlative slipperiest)
- Of a surface, having low friction, often due to being covered in a non-viscous liquid, and therefore hard to grip, hard to stand on without falling, etc.
- Oily substances render things slippery.
- (figuratively, by extension) Evasive; difficult to pin down.
- a slippery person
- a slippery promise
- (obsolete) Liable to slip; not standing firm.
- 1602, William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, III. iii. 84:
- Which when they fall, as being slippery standers, / The love that leaned on them, as slippery too, / Do one pluck down another, and together / Die in the fall.
- 1602, William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, III. iii. 84:
- Unstable; changeable; inconstant.
- 1668, Sir John Denham
- He looking down
With scorn or pity on the slippery state
Of kings, will tread upon the neck of fate.
- He looking down
- 1668, Sir John Denham
- (obsolete) Wanton; unchaste; loose in morals.
- 1610, William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale, I. ii. 273:
- My wife is slippery? If thou wilt confess –
- 1610, William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale, I. ii. 273:
- (of a surface) sticky
- French: glissant
- German: rutschig, glitschig
- Italian: scivoloso
- Portuguese: escorregadio
- Russian: ско́льзкий
- Spanish: resbaladizo, escurridizo, resbaloso
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.004