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.
-
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
-
smooth and shiny; polished
-
polished in speech or behaviour; unctuous
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(of an animal or bird) having a shiny healthy coat or feathers
-
(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
-
am sleekingprogressive
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are sleekingprogressive
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is sleekingprogressive
-
have been sleekingperfect progressive
-
has been sleekingperfect progressive
Past
-
sleekedsimple
-
had sleekedperfect
-
was sleekingprogressive
-
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:
He favors the sleek casual look of the tech world.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
In “The Rivals of Amziah King,” the moment with the queen bee is when the film transitions from its wild, wacky — but intentional — world-building into a sleek Southern noir.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
The drinks come in winsome bottles or sleek cans and have ridiculous flavors like watermelon-dandelion or rosehip-jacaranda.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
But then Florida homeschoolers tried to enroll, so Helton transformed the business to also offer in-person teaching two days a week for homeschool students out of a sleek coworking space.
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2026
She was combing her hair, letting it fall away from her neck, first one way, then another, until the whole, head and hair, was sleek and shining.
From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya
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
“Do nothing for a while. the machine needs a update. the competiion is sleeker and better,” he counseled.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 15, 2026
Today, tech giants have tried to make AI and smart glasses more wearable by partnering with designer eyewear brands - and can pack more power and features into smaller, sleeker frames.
From BBC ● Dec. 9, 2025
With all the milk they were getting, the children began to grow larger and sleeker, and their skin shone with good health.
From "The Girl Who Married a Lion: and Other Tales from Africa" by Alexander Mccall Smith
John Dowie was described in accounts as "the sleekest and kindest of landlords".
From BBC ● Nov. 30, 2024
Microsoft is not the first manufacturer to deploy such a design, but the Surface Laptop Studio is certainly the sleekest laptop yet with it.
From The Verge ● Oct. 8, 2021
Browning whipped up this year's edition of the annual tour of figure skating and ice-dancing champs into one of the sleekest, smoothest shows in years for the franchise.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 27, 2012
Rapping well, singing even better and erasing distinctions between the two, Drake made the sleekest, most self-aware pop album of the year.
From New York Times ● Dec. 17, 2011
When the "sticking-to-the-face" style was in vogue she bought much bandoline and essayed the sleekest and shiniest head of all.
From How to Analyze People on Sight Through the Science of Human Analysis: The Five Human Types by Elsie Lincoln Benedict
A final finishing dollop of aioli swirled into the al dente rice sleeks it with satiny richness.
From New York Times ● Dec. 19, 2019
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
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
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
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
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
His hair was long and sleeked close to his well-shaped head, but his fine mouth and chin sagged, and his eyes were bold and sophisticated.
From Blue-grass and Broadway by Maria Thompson Daviess
They sleeked my skin with red-deer pies, and all that runs and swims and flies; But, through the clashing wine-cups, O, I heard her clanking pail.
From Collected Poems Volume Two by Alfred Noyes
The rest of the travellers sat basking in the sunshine all that day, dressing their sores and bruises, dusting themselves, and sleeking out their matted hair.
From The Three Mulla-mulgars by Walter De la Mare
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
"Ye've just guessed it," answered Thomas, sleeking down his front hair with his fingers in a sober way.
From The World's Greatest Books — Volume 06 — Fiction by Arthur Mee
There he stood at the door sleeking his hair with old country habit, and every now and then stealing a glance round at the splendour of the apartment.
From Mary Barton by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
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
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.
