slippery
likely to slip away or escape: slippery prospects.
not to be depended on; fickle; shifty, tricky, or deceitful.
unstable or insecure, as conditions: a slippery situation.
Origin of slippery
1Other words from slippery
- slip·per·i·ness, noun
- non·slip·per·y, adjective
- un·slip·per·y, adjective
Words Nearby slippery
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use slippery in a sentence
Historically, conservatives treated the minimum wage as an affront to free labor and a step on a slippery slope towards statism.
To Make Their Victory Durable, the GOP Must Fix the Minimum Wage | Dmitri Mehlhorn | November 6, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTSwiss leaders also dispel the “slippery slope” idea by repeatedly rejecting substantial minimum wage increases.
To Make Their Victory Durable, the GOP Must Fix the Minimum Wage | Dmitri Mehlhorn | November 6, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTHers is a particular brand of essay: writing at its most crystal clear, subject matter at its most slippery and interesting.
From Didion to Dunham, Female Essayists Seize the Day | Lucy Scholes | October 17, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThe slippery slope argument is a way of keeping the hands-off-the-Internet-entirely philosophy going.
Which is why his efforts to justify his rabid consumption of football wind up feeling so slippery and convoluted.
Forget the Wife Beating—Are You Ready for Some Football? | Steve Almond | September 11, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
He will find that “Ice” is a concrete word, and “slippery” indicates a quality of “Ice” and of other things.
Assimilative Memory | Marcus Dwight Larrowe (AKA Prof. A. Loisette)He must write down the first two words, “Ice” and “slippery,” the latter word under the former.
Assimilative Memory | Marcus Dwight Larrowe (AKA Prof. A. Loisette)As Isabel walked carefully down the slippery stair she veiled her eyes to hide the wonder in them.
Ancestors | Gertrude AthertonIf these gentlemen had thought to avoid slippery ground, they should have elected to appoint the meeting elsewhere.
St. Martin's Summer | Rafael SabatiniThe floors and steps are wet and slippery with brine and with the blood of herrings dripping down from one floor to another.
Skipper Worse | Alexander Lange Kielland
British Dictionary definitions for slippery
/ (ˈslɪpərɪ, -prɪ) /
causing or tending to cause objects to slip: a slippery road
liable to slip from the grasp, a position, etc
not to be relied upon; cunning and untrustworthy: a slippery character
(esp of a situation) liable to change; unstable
slippery slope a course of action that will lead to disaster or failure
Origin of slippery
1Derived forms of slippery
- slipperily, adverb
- slipperiness, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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