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SLIPPERY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Causing or tending to cause things to slip or slide
Example:
the streets are still slippy from the rain
Synonyms:
slippery; slippy
Classified under:
Similar:
lubricious (having a smooth or slippery quality)
nonstick ((of surfaces especially of cooking utensils) permitting easy removal of adherent food particles)
slick (made slick by e.g. ice or grease)
sliding (being a smooth continuous motion)
slimed; slimy (covered with or resembling slime)
slipping; slithering (moving as on a slippery surface)
slithery (having a slippery surface or quality)
Also:
smooth (having a surface free from roughness or bumps or ridges or irregularities)
Antonym:
nonslippery (not slippery; not likely to slip or skid)
Derivation:
slipperiness (a slippery smoothness)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Not to be trusted
Example:
how extraordinarily slippery a liar the camera is
Synonyms:
slippery; tricky
Classified under:
Similar:
untrustworthy; untrusty (not worthy of trust or belief)
Derivation:
slipperiness (the quality of being a slippery rascal)
Context examples:
Also called gray elm, red elm, slippery elm, sweet elm, Ulmus fulva, and Ulmus rubra.
(Indian elm, NCI Dictionary)
He clutched its slippery top with both hands, releasing Buck, and above the roar of the churning water shouted: “Go, Buck! Go!”
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
Also called Indian elm, red elm, slippery elm, sweet elm, Ulmus fulva, and Ulmus rubra.
(Gray elm, NCI Dictionary)
He was overjoyed to see her, and longed to get to the top of the mountain, but the sides were so slippery that every time he attempted to climb he fell back again.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
An herbal tea mixture that contains burdock root, Indian rhubarb root, sheep sorrel, and slippery elm bark.
(Essiac, NCI Dictionary)
An herbal formula containing burdock root (Arctium lappa), Turkey rhubarb root (Rheum palmatum), sheep sorrel (Rumex acetosella), and slippery elm bark (Ulmus fulva) with potential immunostimulating, anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor activities.
(Essiac, NCI Thesaurus)
To make it worse, the light of the sky was obscured and snow began to fall—a raw, moist, melting, clinging snow, slippery under foot, that hid from him the landscape he traversed, and that covered over the inequalities of the ground so that the way of his feet was more difficult and painful.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
And really, I do not think the impression will soon be over, said Emma, as she crossed the low hedge, and tottering footstep which ended the narrow, slippery path through the cottage garden, and brought them into the lane again.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
An oily or slippery substance.
(Lubricant, NCI Dictionary)
Researchers mostly from Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) in the U.S. reported the invention of a new coating that could reduce bacterial growth, water waste, and odor when sprayed onto an ordinary house toilet by rendering its surface too slippery for anything to remain attached for long.
(Materials scientists invent new coating for self-cleaning, water-efficient toilets, Wikinews)
