slippery
slippery — adjective
1. A surface that is so smooth, wet, or icy that you lose your footing on it, or an
A surface that is so smooth, wet, or icy that you lose your footing on it, or an object that slides out of your hands easily.
Zuri slipped on the kitchen floor right after she mopped it with soap.
slippery floor after mopping
Adina told the children to walk carefully across the wet tiles by the swimming pool.
Marco grabbed the railing when his shoes lost grip on the icy pavement outside.
The trout was so slippery that Jin could not hold it with both hands.
A sign warned hikers that the mossy rocks near the waterfall were extremely slippery.
文法句型
slippery + noun
be + slippery
get/grow + slippery
用法筆記
Often used with nouns describing surfaces that people walk or stand on: floor, road, pavement, path, rocks, tiles, stairs. Also used for objects that are hard to grip, such as fish, soap, or handles.
常見錯誤
2. Describes a person who cannot be trusted because they are dishonest, evasive, or
Describes a person who cannot be trusted because they are dishonest, evasive, or skilled at hiding their true intentions.
Reema's defence lawyer was slippery — he always found ways to bend the rules.
slippery + lawyer / dishonest professional
The car salesman seemed charming, but Benjamin found him slippery and looked elsewhere.
Walid answered questions in a slippery way so that nobody could pin him down.
Ayesha warned her team that the client was a slippery customer who had broken three deals.
The politician's slippery promises sounded good during the campaign but vanished once she took office.
- untrustworthy
more direct and formal; lacks the cunning connotation of slippery
- shady
informal; suggests dishonest activity more than personal evasiveness
- deceitful
stronger moral judgment; implies deliberate lying rather than evasive talk
- sly
emphasises cleverness in hiding intentions; can be admiring in some contexts
- trustworthy
direct opposite — someone you can count on
- straightforward
describes someone who speaks openly and does not hide their intentions
- honest
simple moral opposite
文法句型
slippery + noun (person/character/type)
用法筆記
Typically used with nouns that label people by role: salesman, politician, lawyer, customer, character, type. Rarely used for people you know personally — applying it to a friend would be a strong insult. The closest synonym in register is 'shady' (informal) or 'untrustworthy' (neutral).
常見錯誤
3. Describes a word, concept, or idea that is difficult to define clearly or to gra
Describes a word, concept, or idea that is difficult to define clearly or to grasp fully because its meaning shifts depending on the context or the person using it.
Lakan found the phrase 'academic freedom' slippery — every professor at the meeting used it differently.
slippery + abstract phrase/concept
Élise tried to define 'respect' but the word felt too slippery to capture in one sentence.
Hannah argued that 'fairness' is a slippery term — what seems fair to one person can be unfair to another.
The concept of 'common sense' is notoriously slippery — everyone claims it, but nobody agrees on its meaning.
Michael told his group that 'appropriate' was tricky because its meaning shifted in every context.
- elusive
very close in meaning; emphasises that the thing is hard to catch or pin down
- ambiguous
more neutral — implies multiple possible meanings rather than deliberate vagueness
- vague
suggests insufficient detail rather than inherent shiftiness of meaning
- nebulous
formal; describes something hazy and ill-defined
文法句型
slippery + abstract noun
be + slippery
用法筆記
Only used with abstract nouns (concept, term, word, idea, notion, phrase). Never used for concrete objects or people in this sense. Distinguish from sense 1 (physical surfaces) and sense 2 (untrustworthy people) — if the subject is an abstract idea that resists clear definition, use this sense.