Category:Slippery

Slip"per*y, a. Etym: [see slipper, a.]

1. Having the quality opposite to adhesiveness; allowing or causing Anything to slip or move smoothly, rapidly, and easily upon the Surface; smooth; glib; as, oily substances render things slippery.

2. Not affording firm ground for confidence; as, a slippery promise. The slippery tops of human state. Cowley.

3. Not easily held; liable or apt to slip away. The slippery god will try to loose his hold. Dryden.

4. Liable to slip; not standing firm. Shak.

5. Unstable; changeable; mutable; uncertain; inconstant; fickle. "the Slippery state of kings." Denham.

6. Uncertain in effect. L'estrange.

7. Wanton; unchaste; loose in morals. Shak. Slippery elm. (bot.) (a) An american tree (ulmus fulva) with a mucilagenous and slightly Aromatic inner bark which is sometimes used medicinally; also, the Inner bark itself. (b) a malvaceous shrub (fremontia californica); -- So called on the pacific coast.