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.
-
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
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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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Rebound
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"The Tragedy of Macbeth," Vocabulary from Act 3
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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:
Even the Nissan Leaf—which started life with about as much performance and curb appeal as a boiled potato—is now a sleek, angular crossover with up to 300 miles of range.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 12, 2026
Hidden from view inside the sleek outer nacelle are hundreds of little turbine blades that can shrug off enormous mechanical stresses and temperatures exceeding 1,500C.
From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2026
Known as the “Hippie Car,” the sleek, long-tailed Porsche 917LH stunned the racing world in 1970 by beating juggernaut Ferrari at the famed Le Mans race in France.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2026
The expansive island provides additional preparation space while serving as a focal point for the kitchen’s sleek design.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 29, 2026
The boy is Helmuth's age, with a long, lean face, sleek as a greyhound's.
From "The Boy Who Dared" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
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
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
These aren’t the sleekest wearables on the market, but they’re not a crime against fashion either.
From The Verge ● Jun. 17, 2022
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
The average Traftonite's the sleekest, pertiest chap on earth.
From Out of a Labyrinth by Lawrence L. Lynch
A final finishing dollop of aioli swirled into the al dente rice sleeks it with satiny richness.
From New York Times ● Dec. 19, 2019
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
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
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
I sat by the bright fender, and washed my face, and sleeked my pretty paws, and looked on.
From Pussy and Doggy Tales by Lucy Kemp-Welch
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
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
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 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
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
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