Slippery

Part of speech: adjective (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. Shak.

5. Unstable; changeable; mutable; uncertain; inconstant; fickle. "The slippery state of kings." Denham.

6. Uncertain in effect. L'Estrange.

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.