slippery
Americanadjective
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tending or liable to cause slipping or sliding, as ice, oil, a wet surface, etc..
a slippery road.
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tending to slip from the hold or grasp or from position.
a slippery rope.
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likely to slip away or escape.
slippery prospects.
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not to be depended on; fickle; shifty, tricky, or deceitful.
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unstable or insecure, as conditions.
a slippery situation.
adjective
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causing or tending to cause objects to slip
a slippery road
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liable to slip from the grasp, a position, etc
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not to be relied upon; cunning and untrustworthy
a slippery character
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(esp of a situation) liable to change; unstable
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a course of action that will lead to disaster or failure
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of slippery
1525–35; alteration of slipper 2; compare Low German slipperig; see -y 1
Explanation
Slippery things are slimy or wet, or for some other reason cause you to slide on them. A slippery fish is hard to hold in your hand, and a slippery path is easy to slip on. You should drive slowly and cautiously when the road is slippery after it starts to sleet. And your hands may get slippery with sweat when you're nervous about a job interview. You can also use this adjective in a figurative way, to mean "tricky" or "unreliable," so you might complain about your slippery brother, who always manages to disappear right before it's time to take the trash out or load the dishwasher.
Vocabulary lists containing slippery
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:
For a filmmaker fascinated by the slippery workings of memory, the combination is a natural fit: Before Odysseus can resume his journey, he has to remember that he wants to go home.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
The samples revealed a 100 foot thick layer of pelagic clay, an extremely soft, slippery sediment formed over millions of years as microscopic particles slowly settled to the seafloor.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 5, 2026
But fan attention is slippery, and brands will always try to find a side door into the conversation.
From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026
There’s no missing the point, and clarity can be essential when grappling with something as slippery as grief.
From Salon ● May 25, 2026
Writing, English class, and art all seem kind of slippery.
From "Popcorn" by Rob Harrell
Keep these traits in check the next time you find yourself in a horror film scenario: curiosity—the genre’s original sin—and dissatisfaction, its slipperier cousin.
From Salon ● Mar. 31, 2025
The iPhone SE is slightly taller, wider, and heavier than the Mini — not to mention slipperier with its rounded corners.
From The Verge ● Sep. 8, 2022
He also said the ice surface was slipperier than during visits on sunny days in previous years.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 6, 2022
He struggled to find consistent velocity with his pitches and quality grip with the MLB baseball, which had smaller seams and a slipperier cover.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 4, 2021
Faster, slipperier, she was sliding through the woods and then down to the lakeshore.
From "The Birchbark House" by Louise Erdrich
The new method proved exceptionally effective, as the team created the slipperiest liquid surface in the world.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 23, 2023
As he explains in his memoir, Ronnie was “a conman, fantasist, occasional jailbird, and my father. . . . Ronnie’s life was spent walking on the thinnest, slipperiest ice you can imagine.”
From Washington Post ● Dec. 14, 2020
East End Underworld by Raphael Samuel Published in 1981, this is the story of Arthur Harding, who was born in 1896 and became known as “the slipperiest character in Brick Lane”.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 7, 2019
Not only is no one morally exemplary, but the title character is also the slipperiest of the bunch.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 13, 2017
Salmon are slippery fish, and Loki was the slipperiest of salmon; he wriggled and tried to slip through Thor’s fingers, but Thor simply gripped the fish harder and squeezed it tightly, down by the tail.
From "Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman
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.
