slick

comparative slicker · superlative slickest

1. Slippery or smooth due to a covering of liquid; often used to describe appearances.

   This rain is making the roads slick.

   4 more examples

   The top coating of lacquer gives this finish a slick look.

   His large round head was shaved slick.

   my nipples got hard, and my cunt was slickwith juice.

   2006, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Glamour Girls: Femme/femme Erotica, Haworth Press, →ISBN

   Morning commuters in parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas discovered slick sidewalks and icy roadways Monday.

   2024 January 21, Elizabeth Wolfe, Robert Shackelford and Mary Gilbert, “Icy conditions make for hazardous travel across central US, but warmer air is on the horizon”, in CNN

2. Sleek; smooth.

   Both slick and dainty.

   [1611?], Homer, “(please specify |book=I to XXIV)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter, →OCLC; republished as The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets, […], new edition, volume (please specify the book number), London: Charles Knight and Co., […], 1843, →OCLC

3. Appearing expensive or sophisticated.

   They read all kinds of slick magazines.

4. Superficially convincing but actually untrustworthy.

   That new sales rep is slick. Be sure to read the fine print before you buy anything.

   1 more example

   The threat the most radical of them pose is evidently far greater at home than abroad: in one characteristically slick and chilling Isis video – entitled “a message to the Jordanian tyrant” – a smiling, long-haired young man in black pats the explosive belt round his waist as he burns his passport and his fellow fighters praise the memory of Zarqawi, who was killed in Iraq in 2006.

   2014 November 27, Ian Black, “Courts kept busy as Jordan works to crush support for Isis”, in The Guardian

   Synonyms: glib

5. oftensarcasticClever, making an apparently hard task look easy.

   That was a slick move, locking your keys in the car.

   2 more examples

   Our new process for extracting needles from haystacks is extremely slick.

   I leave the train at Salisbury, where (in a very slick operation) another two-car set is added to the front of the train before it heads for London.

   2022 November 16, Paul Bigland, “From rural branches to high-speed arteries”, in RAIL, number 970, page 55

6. USWest Coast slangExtraordinarily great or special.

   That is one slick bicycle: it has all sorts of features!

plural slicks

1. A covering of liquid, particularly oil.

   Careful in turn three — there's an oil slick on the road.

   1 more example

   The oil slick has now spread to cover the entire bay, critically endangering the sea life.

2. USbroadlydatedgeographyA rapidly-expanding ring of dark water, resembling an oil slick, around the site of a large underwater explosion at shallow depth, marking the progress through the water of the shock wave generated by the explosion.
3. Someone who is clever and untrustworthy.
4. A tool used to make something smooth or even.
5. automotiveA tire with a smooth surface instead of a tread pattern, often used in auto racing.

   You'll go much faster if you put on slicks.

   Synonyms: slick tire, slick tyre

6. USslanggovernmentA helicopter.
7. mediaA camera-ready image to be used by a printer. The "slick" is photographed to produce a negative image which is then used to burn a positive offset plate or other printing device.

   The project was delayed because the slick had not been delivered to the printer.

8. slangmediaA glossy magazine.

   Many of the stories in SSB [Sex Behind Bars] first appeared in gay slicks, Mandate, Honcho, First Hand, et al.

   1981 December 1, Freddie Greenfield, “Insulting Prison Porn”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 20, page 11

   1 more example

   When Carver, wild to be published in a major slick, decided to accept the changes, Maryann accused him “of being a whore, of selling out to the establishment.”

   2009 November 20, Stephen King, “Raymond Carver’s Life and Stories”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

9. A wide paring chisel used in joinery.
10. slanglifestyleIn omegaverse fiction, the copious, lubricating bodily fluid produced by an omega in heat.

    I spent two fucking days locked up in that hotel room, miserable and hating myself and drenched in my own slick!

    2017, "Tessa on Ice", quoted in Marianne Gunderson, "What is an omega?: Rewriting sex and gender in omegaverse fanfiction", thesis submitted to the University of Oslo, page 41

    2 more examples

    For his ruts, Castiel orders slick from a single donor, who is, unbeknownst to him, Dean, who lives at the Roadhouse and is in contact with many of his colleagues and rescuees.

    2019, Tessa Barone, "Just Go Find Yourself a Nice Alpha: Gender and Consent in Supernatural Fandom's Alpha/Beta/Omega Universe", thesis submitted to Oregon State University, page 32

    She observed another parallel to menstruation, namely the abundance of 'slick' that Omegas produce when they go into heat, which mainly functions as an anal lubricant.

    2019, Chris van der Vegt, "The Second Genders: Utopia and Dystopia in Stranger Things Omegaverse Fanfiction", thesis submitted to Utrecht University, page 23

11. slangA silver coin that has been worn to the point its surface feels smooth to the touch.

    Somebody once came into the coin shop with a bunch of really well-worn junk silver that would commonly be called "slicks."

    2014 January 6, CaptHenway, “How much metal is lost by weight from wear during circulation?”, in NGC Forums

    1 more example

    a slick doesn’t really give you anything except the satisfaction of owning it, while the hole gives you satisfaction if actually being able to see something

    2021 February 16, hotwheelsearl, “Would you rather have a slick coin with barely any details, or a holed one with good details?”, in CoinTalk.com

present singular third person slicks · participle present slicking · participle past slicked · past slicked

1. To make slick.

   The surface had been slicked.

   1 more example

   So I slicked the broccoli with oil and seasonings and set it to roast.

   2009 January 14, Melissa Clark, “Green, Gold and Pink: Fast, Easy and Delicious”, in New York Times

1. alternativecolloquialnot comparableAlternative form of sleek (“with ease and dexterity”).

   We're just following a couple of crooks who've got slick away in that two-funnelled boat yonder, and we mean to keep in touch with them till they land.

   1915, William Le Queux, The Place of Dragons

1. alternativeAlternative form of schlich.

1. A term of address, generally applied to males, possibly including strangers, implying that the person addressed is slick in the sense of "sophisticated", but often used sarcastically.

   Don't you look good tonight, Slick!

   1 more example

   That was a great move locking your keys in the car, Slick.