Slip"per*y (?), a. [See Slipper, 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.
© Webster 1913.