Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Causing or tending to cause sliding or slipping.
- adjective Tending to slip, as from one's grasp.
- adjective Not trustworthy; elusive or tricky.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Having such smoothness of surface as to cause slipping or sliding, or to render grip or hold difficult; not affording firm footing or secure hold.
- Hence That cannot be depended on or trusted; uncertain; untrustworthy; apt to play one false; dishonest: as, he is a slippery person to deal with; slippery politicians.
- Liable to slip or lose footing.
- Unstable; changeable; mutable.
- Lubric; wanton; unchaste.
- Crafty; sly.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Having the quality opposite to adhesiveness; allowing or causing anything to slip or move smoothly, rapidly, and easily upon the surface; smooth; glib.
- adjective Not affording firm ground for confidence.
- adjective Not easily held; liable or apt to slip away.
- adjective Liable to slip; not standing firm.
- adjective Unstable; changeable; mutable; uncertain; inconstant; fickle.
- adjective Uncertain in effect.
- adjective Wanton; unchaste; loose in morals.
- adjective (Bot.) A malvaceous shrub (
Fremontia Californica ); -- so called on the Pacific coast.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Of a surface, having low friction, often due to being covered in a non-
viscous liquid, and therefore hard to grip, hard to stand on without falling, etc. - adjective figuratively, by extension
Evasive ; difficult topin down . - adjective obsolete Liable to slip; not standing firm.
- adjective
unstable ;changeable ;inconstant - adjective obsolete
wanton ;unchaste ;loose inmorals
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective not to be trusted
- adjective causing or tending to cause things to slip or slide
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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You know, people always use the term slippery slope when it comes to ethical arguments, and I think it applies here as well.
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"The term slippery slope is a cliche," Slive said.
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They're fearful of what they refer to as a slippery slope, that with that precedent, that society might wind up going after other categories of weapons and munitions that could fall under the same kind of a logic like clustered munitions.
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-0 / +2This here is what we call a slippery slope.
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It has a torque-sensing limited-slip front differential to give more traction in slippery conditions, and has a full diff-lock option for seriously rugged terrain.
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The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has tentacles in slippery abundance.
Stefan Beck: Beaches: Bergman's The Seventh Seal & the Wellfleet Oyster Festival Stefan Beck 2010
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The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has tentacles in slippery abundance.
Stefan Beck: Beaches: Bergman's The Seventh Seal & the Wellfleet Oyster Festival Stefan Beck 2010
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People need to go back to manual transmissions – they are also quite a bit better to drive in slippery conditions, because you have better control over the wheel speed.
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The mayor describes the union tactics as “thuggish” so you engage in slippery logic, to say the least.
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The mayor describes the union tactics as “thuggish†so you engage in slippery logic, to say the least.
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