lubricity
Americannoun
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oily smoothness, as of a surface; slipperiness.
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ability to lubricate; capacity for lubrication.
the wonderful lubricity of this new oil.
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instability; shiftiness; fleeting nature.
the lubricity of fame and fortune.
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lewdness; lustfulness: lasciviousness; salaciousness.
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something that arouses lasciviousness, especially pornography.
noun
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formal lewdness or salaciousness
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rare smoothness or slipperiness
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capacity to lubricate
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of lubricity
First recorded in 1485–95; earlier lubrycyte “lewdness,” from Medieval Latin lubricitās “lechery,” Late Latin: “slipperiness.” See lubric, -ity
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
From Hester Prynne to "family values" runs a line of anxious lubricity, of guilt and retribution.
From Time Magazine Archive
In close quarters he suffered their backwoods lubricity and knucklehead talk.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
Some, therefore, in pure simplicity and conscientious discharge of the duty they had assumed, but others, from lubricity of morals or the irritations of curiosity, pushed their investigations into unhallowed paths of speculation.
From Theological Essays and Other Papers — Volume 1 by De Quincey, Thomas
In one epoch lubricity, in another fanaticism, in a third dulness and a dead-alive copying of the past, are the faults which criticism finds to attack.
From Froude's Essays in Literature and History With Introduction by Hilaire Belloc by Belloc, Hilaire
Satire is the pantomime of literature, and harlequin's jacket, his black vizor, and his eel-like lubricity, are so many harmless satires on the weak sides of our nature.
From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 13, No. 358, February 28, 1829 by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
