slippery as an eel

Idioms  

1. Elusive, devious, as in When it comes to talking about his investments, Jim's slippery as an eel. This simile, first recorded about 1412, alludes to the eel's skin, which has tiny scales and is quite slippery when wet.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

slippery as an eel

Memory may seem to be a guarantor of memoir's authenticity, but when pressed into service for a more general kind of food history, it can be become as slippery as an eel.

From The Guardian ● Jun. 18, 2010

The Dashew 83 is as slippery as an eel below the waterline.

From Time Magazine Archive

To-day she was polite, but cool, and as slippery as an eel.

From Put Yourself in His Place by Charles Reade

I have got a fellow, but he is as slippery as an eel, and very hard to hold.

From The Three Midshipmen by Victor Prout

At that time Barbarossa seemed to be everywhere and nowhere, terrible as a basilisk, and slippery as an eel, and far and wide mothers quieted their screaming children by saying: Zitto, Barbarossa is coming!

From Barbarossa and Other Tales by Paul Heyse