SLIPPERY

slippery. Slippery, a. apt to make one slip, unstable

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Slip″per‐y (?), a. [[See Slipper, a.]] 1. 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. 2. Not affording firm ground for confidence; as, a slippery promise.
The slippery tops of human state. Cowley. 3. 3. Not easily held; liable or apt to slip away.
The slippery god will try to loose his hold. Dryden. 4. 4. Liable to slip; not standing firm. Shak.
5. 5. Unstable; changeable; mutable; uncertain; inconstant; fickle. “The slippery state of kings.” Denham.
6. 6. Uncertain in effect. L'Estrange.
7. 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.