Word.ws English Dictionary

sleek

/sliːk/

sleek adjective: having an even, smooth surface; smooth. Also the dated form of slick.

Adjective

sleek (comparative sleeker, superlative sleekest)

  1. Having an even, smooth surface; smooth
    • sleek hair
    • So sleek her skin, so faultless was her make.1717, John Dryden, Samuel Garth, et al., “Book 1”, in Metamorphoses, translation of Metamorphoses by Ovid, line 837
  2. Glossy.
  3. Not rough or harsh.
    • Those rugged names to our like mouths grow sleek.1673, John Milton, “Sonnet 11”, in Poems, line 10
  4. Slim and streamlined; not plump, thick, or stocky.
    • But if it were like a rabbit that Rosa went, she came back like a weasel or some such sleek and lissom creature.1961, Xavier Herbert, Soldiers' Women, Netley, SA: Fontana Books, published 1978, page 99
  5. Healthy, well-fed and well-groomed; in good condition.

Adverb

sleek (not comparable)

  1. (colloquial, dated) With ease and dexterity.
    Synonyms:
    clean, slick

Verb

sleek (third-person singular simple present sleeks, present participle sleeking, simple past and past participle sleeked)

  1. (transitive) To make smooth or glossy; to polish.
    • The sloping brush sleeks the surface.1895, The New Technical Educator, page 258
  2. (dated, transitive) To calm or soothe.
  3. (dated, intransitive) To glide.

Noun

sleek (uncountable)

  1. That which makes smooth; varnish.

Also used as

sleek is also the dated form of slick.

sleek meaning in Persian

sleek in Persian

smooth
لخت laxt

Examples of sleek in a sentence

  • In contrast with modern sleek, corporate websites, the Neocities platform allows users to create personal webpages reminiscent of the Old Web featuring tiled backgrounds, animated GIFs, guestbooks, and simple HTML.
  • Skip the Rollie and gift them a sleek Apple Watch instead.
  • Free-flowing but sleek: That’s not to say sleek trends will die this year.

All 40 example sentences with sleek

Synonyms of sleek

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of sleek

Forms of sleek

Adjective
comparativesleeker
superlativesleekest
Verb
third-person singular presentsleeks
present participlesleeking
past participlesleeked
pastsleeked

Origin of sleek

A late variant of slick; cognate to German schleichen (Old High German slihhan) and Dutch slijk (“mud, slime”). Compare slink.

Words formed from sleek

Words that rhyme with sleek

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about sleek

What does sleek mean?
Sleek means having an even, smooth surface; smooth.
What is sleek in Persian?
Sleek in Persian is لخت (laxt). See Sleek meaning in Persian.
What part of speech is sleek?
Sleek can be an adjective, an adverb, a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce sleek?
Sleek is pronounced /sliːk/.

Words near sleek in the dictionary

  1. sleeched
  2. sleeches
  3. sleeching
  4. sleechy
  5. sleeeep
  6. sleek
  7. sleeke
  8. sleeked
  9. sleeken
  10. sleekened
  11. sleekening

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sleek (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-sleek.wav.

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