Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Causing or tending to cause sliding or slipping: a slippery sidewalk.
- adj. Tending to slip, as from one's grasp: a slippery bar of soap.
- adj. Not trustworthy; elusive or tricky: "How extraordinarily slippery a liar the camera is” ( James Agee).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Having such smoothness of surface as to cause slipping or sliding, or to render grip or hold difficult; not affording firm footing or secure hold.
- Hence That cannot be depended on or trusted; uncertain; untrustworthy; apt to play one false; dishonest: as, he is a slippery person to deal with; slippery politicians.
- Liable to slip or lose footing.
- Unstable; changeable; mutable.
- Lubric; wanton; unchaste.
- Crafty; sly.
Wiktionary
- adj. 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.
- adj. Evasive; difficult to pin down.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Having the quality opposite to adhesiveness; allowing or causing anything to slip or move smoothly, rapidly, and easily upon the surface; smooth; glib.
- adj. Not affording firm ground for confidence.
- adj. Not easily held; liable or apt to slip away.
- adj. Liable to slip; not standing firm.
- adj. Unstable; changeable; mutable; uncertain; inconstant; fickle.
- adj. Uncertain in effect.
- adj. Wanton; unchaste; loose in morals.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. not to be trusted
- adj. causing or tending to cause things to slip or slide
Etymologies
- Alteration of obsolete slipper, from Middle English, from Old English slipor; see lei- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“You know, people always use the term slippery slope when it comes to ethical arguments, and I think it applies here as well.”
“The term slippery slope is a cliche," Slive said.”
“They're fearful of what they refer to as a slippery slope, that with that precedent, that society might wind up going after other categories of weapons and munitions that could fall under the same kind of a logic like clustered munitions.”
“-0 / +2This here is what we call a slippery slope.”
“The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has tentacles in slippery abundance.”
“People need to go back to manual transmissions – they are also quite a bit better to drive in slippery conditions, because you have better control over the wheel speed.”
“It has a torque-sensing limited-slip front differential to give more traction in slippery conditions, and has a full diff-lock option for seriously rugged terrain.”
“The mayor describes the union tactics as “thuggish” so you engage in slippery logic, to say the least.”
“The mayor describes the union tactics as “thuggish†so you engage in slippery logic, to say the least.”
“His wings made a sort of balustrade, very helpful to hold by in slippery weather.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘slippery’.
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Artistic words
Good for poetry, or just artistic on their own.
fluxus, gallant, kinetic, lurk, disengage, mist, agleam, voyeur, devoid, crimson, ebony, azure and 94 more...
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Weftage
The many textures of touch.
smooth, warty, velvety, sleek, grainy, shaggy, abrasive, scratchy, bumpy, corded, ribbed, roughish and 95 more...
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Walking in the snow
If you like piña coladas and getting caught in the rain, I would suggest this other list.
snow, snotsicle, scarf, snowsuit, mittens, gloves, hat, layers, boots, eyelashes freezin..., chemical heat pack, coveralls and 25 more...
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