sleek
1 Americanadjective
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sleeker,
comparative
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sleekest
superlative
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smooth or glossy, as hair, an animal, etc.
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well-fed or well-groomed.
-
trim and graceful; finely contoured; streamlined.
a sleek sports car.
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smooth in manners, speech, etc.; suave.
-
cleverly or deceitfully skillful; slick.
a sleek confidence man.
verb (used with object)
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sleeks,
present (3rd person singular)
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sleeked,
past participle, past
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sleeking
present participle
adjective
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smooth and shiny; polished
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polished in speech or behaviour; unctuous
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(of an animal or bird) having a shiny healthy coat or feathers
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(of a person) having a prosperous appearance
verb
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to make smooth and glossy, as by grooming, etc
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(usually foll by over) to cover (up), as by making more agreeable; gloss (over)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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sleeksimple
-
sleekssimple
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have sleekedperfect
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has sleekedperfect
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am sleekingprogressive
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are sleekingprogressive
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is sleekingprogressive
-
have been sleekingperfect progressive
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has been sleekingperfect progressive
Past
-
sleekedsimple
-
had sleekedperfect
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was sleekingprogressive
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were sleekingprogressive
-
had been sleekingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sleek1
First recorded in 1580–90; variant of slick
Origin of sleek2
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English sleken, variant of slick
Explanation
If your hair is sleek, it is smooth and glossy. If your car is sleek, it's shiny and looks like it goes fast. Sleek always means smooth, glossy, and streamlined. Sleek is a variant of the word, slick. When you slick back your hair with grease, it becomes sleek. Cats are often called sleek with their silky coats and lithe movements. A dress could be described as sleek, if it fits tightly to your body and makes you look polished and perfectly fit. When something is sleek, it's aerodynamic.
Vocabulary lists containing sleek
Mr. Popper’s Penguins
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"The Tragedy of Macbeth," Vocabulary from Act 3
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Rebound
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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.
See Examples For:
The Canadian superstar took to the runway at the end of L'Oreal's annual show, emerging in a sleek black gown to rapturous applause at one of the fashion calendar's most glamorous openings.
From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026
The sleek, white kitchen has since been thoroughly modernized, with marble countertops and a six-burner cooktop.
From Salon ● Sep. 24, 2026
A creature descends to Earth from a sleek spacecraft, still humanoid but far removed from its ancestor species Homo sapiens sapiens.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 22, 2026
Inevitably, given the origins of the Lucas wealth, they have been compared to the sleek contoured spaceships of his “Star Wars” movies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
Sitting on the pavement, glinting in the sun, was a sleek white airship.
From "The Wild Robot Escapes" by Peter Brown
It is primarily composed of concrete streets, old family-run stores, and a massive influx of newer, sleeker businesses with scrawled cursive logos and $7 drinks.
From Slate ● Sep. 6, 2026
Farther along the bike trail, you’ll hit The Commons, sleeker than your first stop and popular with a laptop-tethered set.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026
South Korean technology giant Samsung unveiled new, sleeker smartphone models Wednesday priced more than previous models as artificial intelligence raises component costs.
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
Read: The latest Oura and Fitbit wearables are smarter and sleeker than ever — but do they keep you healthy?
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 18, 2026
Looking round the little group that gathered on the grass, Hazel saw that all of them—even Holly—were looking stronger, sleeker and in better shape than when they had first come to the down.
From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams
John Dowie was described in accounts as "the sleekest and kindest of landlords".
From BBC ● Nov. 30, 2024
These aren’t the sleekest wearables on the market, but they’re not a crime against fashion either.
From The Verge ● Jun. 17, 2022
Having spent the better part of 30 years in Japan, I’m ever more impressed by how profoundly primal beliefs and atavistic rites underlie even the sleekest Harajuku fashions.
From New York Times ● Dec. 26, 2017
Even the sleekest shows require constant maintenance under the hood.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 1, 2015
Beyond this, capping the summit of a hill, may be seen the conical huts of natives, bordered by fresh pastures dotted with flocks of sheep and goats, or covered by numbers of the sleekest cattle.
From Captain Canot or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver by Brantz Mayer
A final finishing dollop of aioli swirled into the al dente rice sleeks it with satiny richness.
From New York Times ● Dec. 19, 2019
His eye burns deep, his tail is arched, And streams upon the shadowy air, The daylight sleeks his jetty flanks, His mistress' hair.
From Collected Poems 1901-1918 in Two Volumes Volume II. by Walter De la Mare
Through the grass and the flowers came the evil trail, turning from time to time its head to its back, licking like a beast that sleeks itself.
From Divine Comedy, Norton's Translation, Purgatory by Charles Eliot Norton
The true adjective clause is “sleeking ... locks” = with which she sleeks, etc.; and the true participial clause is “she sits ... rocks” = seated on ... rocks.
From Milton's Comus by William Bell
Vanity is to a man what the oily secretion is to a bird, with which it sleeks and adjusts the plumage ruffled by whatever causes.
From Dreamthorp A Book of Essays Written in the Country by Alexander Smith
Takisha Sturdivant-Drew sleeked Kerry Washington’s coat; and Amy Adams, Naomi Campbell, and Heidi Klum, who was coiffed by Andy Lecompte, joined her with forays into flattening.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 9, 2017
He sleeked his hair, put on spats, became meticulous about his clothes.
From Time Magazine Archive
From western ranges, where the feed is scanty, cattle are moving by the hungry thousands to corn-rich Missouri, Iowa and eastern Kansas, there to be stuffed and sleeked for market.
From Time Magazine Archive
He's an awful stylish chap, with blond hair sleeked down on his skull, and glasses set pert on the bridge of his nose.
From The Black Eagle Mystery by Geraldine Bonner
Vivie had once derided him for trying to woo his frontal hair into a flattened curl with much pomade ... he now only sleeked his curly hair with water.
From Mrs. Warren's Daughter A Story of the Woman's Movement by Sir Harry Hamilton Johnston
It began sleeking its long yellow hair, which fell over its shoulders; its eyes were not turned toward me, but to the door; it seemed listening, watching, waiting.
From The Boy Scouts Book of Stories by Walt Louderback
It began sleeking its long, yellow hair, which fell over its shoulders; its eyes were not turned towards me, but to the door; it seemed listening, watching, waiting.
From Haunted and the Haunters by Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron Lytton
At the risk of her life she dragged him across to the entrance, and sat desolately crumbling away between her fingers such feathers as were singed upon him, and sleeking his long gasping neck.
From The Lady of Fort St. John by Mary Hartwell Catherwood
It began sleeking its long, yellow hair, which fell over its shoulders; its eyes were not turned toward me, but to the door; it seemed listening, watching, waiting.
From The Lock and Key Library Classic Mystery and Detective Stories: Old Time English by Julian Hawthorne
But the Midden was now rocking and floating on the shadowy water, her bright hair sleeking the stream behind her.
From The Three Mulla-mulgars by Walter De la Mare
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.
