- (also informal slippy)difficult to hold or to stand or move on, because it is smooth, wet or polished
- slippery like a fish
- In places the path can be wet and slippery.
- His hand was slippery with sweat.
Extra Examples- The concrete gets slippery when it's wet.
- The oil made the ground slippery and treacherous to walk on.
- Watch out—the floor's a bit slippery.
- rocks that were slippery with seaweed
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverbs- be
- feel
- look
- …
- extremely
- fairly
- very
- …
- with
- slippery when wet
- wet and slippery
- (informal) (of a person) that you cannot trust
- Don't believe what he says—he's a slippery customer (= person).
- (informal) (of a situation, subject, problem, etc.) difficult to deal with and that you have to think about carefully
- Freedom is a slippery concept (= because its meaning changes according to your point of view).
- International law is notoriously slippery.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverbs- be
- feel
- look
- …
- extremely
- fairly
- very
- …
- with
- slippery when wet
- wet and slippery
Word Originlate 15th cent.: from dialect slipper ‘slippery’, probably suggested by Luther's schlipfferig.
Idioms
See slippery in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionarythe/a slippery slope
- a course of action that is difficult to stop once it has begun, and can lead to serious problems or disaster
- She realized he was on the slippery slope towards a life of crime.
Check pronunciation:
slippery