lubricity

[loo-bris-i-tee]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR lubricity ON THESAURUS.COM

noun, plural lu·bric·i·ties.

oily smoothness, as of a surface; slipperiness.

ability to lubricate; capacity for lubrication: the wonderful lubricity of this new oil.

instability; shiftiness; fleeting nature: the lubricity of fame and fortune.

lewdness; lustfulness: lasciviousness; salaciousness.

something that arouses lasciviousness, especially pornography.

Origin of lubricity

1485–95; earlier lubrycyte lewdness < Medieval Latin lubricitās lechery, Late Latin: slipperiness. See lubric, -ity

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for lubricity

indecency, profanity, vulgarity, smut, pornography, depravity, atrocity, evil, degradation, impropriety, abomination, scatology, prurience, offense, dirtiness, curse, impurity, swearword, outrage, filthiness

Examples from the Web for lubricity

Historical Examples of lubricity

A young constitution still resisted the inroads of lubricity.
The Magic Skin
Honore de Balzac
The works of our standard authors in literature abound in lubricity.
Plain Facts for Old and Young
John Harvey Kellogg
Dawn was a Mordvinian girl; in Australia she was a lubra addicted to lubricity.
Modern Mythology
Andrew Lang
A fish adorns his flag, and he rides a parrot or sparrow, emblematic of lubricity.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 15, Slice 6
Various
He is teres et rotundas; strokes fly from the lubricity of his polish, and the shiftings of his circular formation.
Tomlinsoniana
Edward Bulwer-Lytton

British Dictionary definitions for lubricity

lubricity

noun

formal, or literary lewdness or salaciousness

rare smoothness or slipperiness

capacity to lubricate

Word Origin for lubricity

C15 (lewdness), C17 (slipperiness): from Old French lubricité, from Medieval Latin lubricitās, from Latin, from lūbricus slippery

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

Word Origin and History for lubricity

late 15c., "lasciviousness," from Middle French lubricité or directly from Latin lubricitatem (nominative lubricitas), from lubricus "slippery" (see lubricant (adj.)). Sense of "oiliness, smoothness" is from 1540s; figurative sense of "shiftiness" is from 1610s.