Word.ws English Dictionary

oilily

oilily adverb: flatteringly, obsequiously.

Adverb

oilily (comparative more oilily, superlative most oilily)

  1. Flatteringly, obsequiously.
  2. In an oily way; with the appearance or consistency of oil.
    • […] the nicest young man that ever was, — daintily gloved, patently booted, oilily curled, snowily wristbanded, with a lovely cambric (prima facie) handkerchief bound about his hyacinthine locks and polished hat.1871, Gail Hamilton, Gala-days, page 191
    • The tarmac road glistened oilily, the sun poured down, there was a strong smell of warm tar.1952, Doris Lessing, Martha Quest, Panther, published 1974, page 158

Forms of oilily

comparativemore oilily
superlativemost oilily

Origin of oilily

From oily + -ly.

Questions about oilily

What does oilily mean?
Oilily means flatteringly, obsequiously.
What part of speech is oilily?
Oilily is an adverb.

Words near oilily in the dictionary

  1. oilies
  2. oiliest
  3. oiligarch
  4. oiligarchies
  5. oiligarchy
  6. oilily
  7. oiliness
  8. oilinesses
  9. oiling
  10. oiling up
  11. oilings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: oilily (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “oilily.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/oilily. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.