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
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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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"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 minimalist design gives vehicles a "sleek look and reduces wind drag" but can be confusing to use, car industry analyst Stephen Dyer from consultancy AlixPartners told the BBC.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
Safety concerns have risen in China recently over sleek car designs that are prone to losing operability in the event of a crash.
From Barron's ● Aug. 24, 2026
But it raises a new problem: If everything is flat and sleek and simple, it all looks the same once again.
From Slate ● Aug. 21, 2026
Still, a visit to Meyers’ sleek apartment, admittedly paid for by his parents, confirms for Ed the kind of youthful privilege at play here, so unlike the scrappier downtown bohemia of his own artistic heyday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
There was a lion, a tiger, a sleek black panther, and a slender, spotted cheetah.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
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
At a recent event, Meta unveiled a pair of sleeker, oval-shaped glasses designed in collaboration with Jenner.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
Also: The latest Oura and Fitbit wearables are smarter and sleeker than ever — but do they keep you healthy?
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 27, 2026
The vessels have a deeper draught - the amount of hull below the waterline - than most CalMac ships, allowing for a sleeker, more fuel efficient shape.
From BBC ● Mar. 30, 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
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
That’s because they’re usually looking for the sleekest, coolest, most graphically stunning pieces, and well, that’s just not my priority.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 2, 2020
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
Subsections vied with one another to produce the smartest gun detachment, the sleekest horses, the best turned-out ride, the cleanest harness, guns, and wagons.
From Servants of the Guns by Jeffery E. Jeffery
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
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 sleeked his hair, put on spats, became meticulous about his clothes.
From Time Magazine Archive
Though she rose from the sea There were stains upon her whiteness; All earth's waters had not sleeked her clean.
From The Book of Susan A Novel by Lee Wilson Dodd
The feathers of the crown are erected, but those of the body are sleeked.
From Natural History of the Bell Vireo, Vireo bellii Audubon by Jon C. Barlow
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
Anointed with the sleeking oil there strive our fellows stripped In wrestling game of fatherland: it joys us to have slipped By such a host of Argive towns amidmost of the foe.
From The Æneids of Virgil Done into English Verse by William Morris
"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
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
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
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.
