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# slippery

«slippery» in Mova's school dictionary: **smooth, wet or icy so that it is hard to hold or to stand…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

adjective (slippery, more slippery, most slippery)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Slippery means smooth, wet or icy so that it is hard to hold or to stand on without sliding. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/slippery/#m1)

2) A slippery person cannot be trusted and is hard to catch or pin down. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/slippery/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In safety, slippery floors, ice, wet rocks and mud cause falls: walk, do not run, near pools; wipe up spills; wear shoes with grip. Signs say «Caution: slippery floor». In science, slippery surfaces have low friction. Phrases: «slippery slope» (one small step that leads to worse things), «as slippery as an eel».

### examples

- The floor is slippery after mopping. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/slippery/#x1)
- Walk carefully — the path is slippery with ice. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/slippery/#x2)
- Don't run by the pool; it's slippery. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/slippery/#x3)
- The fish was too slippery to hold. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/slippery/#x4)
- Soap makes your hands slippery. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/slippery/#x5)
- Wet leaves make the road slippery for bikes. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/slippery/#x6)
- The rocks by the river are slippery. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/slippery/#x7)
- The slippery thief escaped again. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/slippery/#x8)
- The rock was slippery as a ball, and they had to crawl rather than climb. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/slippery/#x9)

### note

Comparison: «more slippery» is more common, but «slipperier» is also seen. The verb is «slip». Spelled with double p. Low friction = slippery; high friction = grippy.

### In the corpora

- [Smooth cartilage and a slippery fluid let the ends of bones glide in a joint.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/64-cells-bones-and-muscles/14/)
- [Banana skins are slippery because of a gel on the inside; scientists who measured it won the joke Ig Nobel Prize in 2014.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/86-monkey-house-and-lemurs-of-madagascar/13/)
- [Leatherback turtles eat huge amounts of jellyfish, and their throats are lined with spikes that keep the slippery food from sliding back out.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/133-finding-nemo-dory-turtles-and-the-reef/13/)
- [She forgot the key on the table; the glass leg is too slippery to climb, so she cries.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/2-alice-ch1-part2-the-little-door/16/)
- [Soap is slightly alkaline and feels slippery; strong alkalis like oven cleaner can burn skin badly.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/16-alkalis-and-soda/12/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «slippery» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/slippery/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.