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
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(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
-
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:
At its headquarters in the West Midlands of the U.K., designers were tasked with conjuring up a sleek silhouette that engineers had to transform into a viable machine.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026
The Canadian superstar took to the runway at the end of L'Oreal's annual show, emerging in a sleek black gown to rapturous applause at one of the fashion calendar's most glamorous openings.
From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026
The sleek, white kitchen has since been thoroughly modernized, with marble countertops and a six-burner cooktop.
From Salon ● Sep. 24, 2026
A creature descends to Earth from a sleek spacecraft, still humanoid but far removed from its ancestor species Homo sapiens sapiens.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 22, 2026
They had brought scraps from garbage pails and even tidbits from their own scanty plates smuggled past watchful mothers, and Mr. Hashbaz had remained sleek and fat.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
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
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
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
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
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
Akseizer Design Group consulted on the interior design, which is flexible enough to accommodate grandmother’s heirlooms or the sleekest contemporary pieces.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 4, 2020
"It seems to me," he replied, mystified, but humouring him, "I remember a young buck about twenty, with the tightest coat, the sleekest hair, and the prancingest saddle horse in the Blue Ridge."
From Whirligigs by O. Henry
A final finishing dollop of aioli swirled into the al dente rice sleeks it with satiny richness.
From New York Times ● Dec. 19, 2019
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
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
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
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
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
In the box-office sat a young man with hair precisely parted in the middle and sleeked down in two whirls brought low on his forehead.
From The Fortune Hunter by David Graham Phillips
I allays liked to have my hair sleeked up as tight as I could get it; and then I knowed there warn't none of it flyin'.
From Diana by Susan Warner
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
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
"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 towards me, but to the door; it seemed listening, watching, waiting.
From Haunted and the Haunters by Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron Lytton
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
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.
