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.
Jondavid Longo, the mayor of Slippery Rock, a small town just a few miles away, was on stage moments before the shooting, part of the warm-up act.
From BBC • Oct. 5, 2024
About 15 minutes before former President Trump took the stage for his Saturday rally in Butler, he shook hands with Jondavid Longo, the mayor of nearby Slippery Rock.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 17, 2024
Humid conditions in southern Nice frazzled the thinking and Ford claimed mitigating circumstances: Slippery hands.
From Washington Times • Sep. 17, 2023
The artificial turf is from Montreal — the 2019 turf was donated to the Farnham Park national baseball and softball complex outside London — and the clay is again from Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania.
From Seattle Times • Jun. 16, 2023
Many of them end up at its satellite campuses, or at West Chester, Bloomsburg, Slippery Rock, or other institutions in Pennsylvania’s network of publicly supported colleges.
From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove
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.
