Slip·per·y 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.
5. Unstable; changeable; mutable; uncertain; inconstant; fickle. “The slippery state of kings.”
6. Uncertain in effect.
7. Wanton; unchaste; loose in morals.
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.
◄ ►
slippery elm
n : North American elm having rough leaves that are red when
opening; yields a hard wood [syn: red elm, Ulmus rubra]