slicker
UK/ˈslɪkə/US/ˈslɪkɚ/
slicker is the comparative form of slick.
Noun
slicker (plural slickers)
- One who or that which slicks.
- A waterproof coat or jacket.
- Synonyms:
- poncho
- A person who is perceived as clever, urbane and possibly disreputable. (abbreviation of city slicker.)
- A swindler or conman.
- A symmetrical knife with a handle at each end, used for burnishing leather.
- A curved tool for smoothing the surfaces of a mould after the withdrawal of the pattern.
- A two-handled tool for finishing concrete or mortar; a darby.
- Synonym of slicker brush
- There are numerous grooming products on the market, particularly for longhaired cats – for example, rakes, slickers and detangle sprays, many of which claim to make grooming as simple and safe as possible.2009, Vicky Halls, The Complete Cat, page 225
- Synonyms:
- slicker brush
Verb
slicker (third-person singular simple present slickers, present participle slickering, simple past and past participle slickered)
- To slither, as on a slick surface.
- My good lady wife invited many and often her friends to a dish of cauliflower cooked as it ought to be and finely seasoned, and you ought to see how they slickered their tongues; it looked like appetite all over their faces.1883, Transactions of the Illinois State Horticultural Society
- I carefully watched his quick emotions as they slickered in his eyes before he hid them.2013, Quinn Higgins, The Waiting Room, →ISBN, page 41
- To con or hoodwink.
- I knew he had been slickered again.1979, John Greenway, Susan Perl, Tales from the United States, →ISBN, page 9
- To use a slicker on.
- ...carbon bisulphide, chloride of sulphur and sulphur precipitating substances, the surplus rubber adhering to the hide being then slickered off and finished with a cloth dipped in a rubber solvent.1911, The Canadian Patent Office Record and Register of Copyrights and Trade marks, Volume 38
- The bends are rinsed well and slickered on both the sides to remove excess of water.1962, Central Leather Research Institute (India), Leather Science - Volume 9, page 209
- To smooth or slick.
- Anyway, to make a long story short, here was this young kin of mine dressed in a white shirt and shoes and pale blue shorts standin' there with his hair slickered down, starin' at me.2008, Preston Wilson, Tales of Finnigan LeBlanc, Prince of Mushrat, →ISBN, page 42
- To spread mashed manure on fields as a form of fertilization.
Meaning of slick
Adjective
slick (comparative slicker, superlative slickest)
- Slippery or smooth due to a covering of liquid; often used to describe appearances.
- This rain is making the roads slick.
- 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...
- Appearing expensive or sophisticated.
- They read all kinds of slick magazines.
- Superficially convincing but actually untrustworthy.
- That new sales rep is slick. Be sure to read the fine print before you buy anything.
- Synonyms:
- glib
- Clever, making an apparently hard task look easy.
- Our new process for extracting needles from haystacks is extremely slick.
- Extraordinarily great or special.
- That is one slick bicycle: it has all sorts of features!
Synonyms of slicker
Forms of slicker
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | slickers |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | slickers |
| present participle | slickering |
| past participle | slickered |
| past | slickered |
Origin of slicker
From the adjective slick.
From slick (“to smooth or make slick”) + -er.
Words formed from slicker
Phrases with slicker
Words that rhyme with slicker
Questions about slicker
- What does slicker mean?
- Slicker means one who or that which slicks.
- What is slicker the comparative form of?
- Slicker is the comparative form of slick.
- What part of speech is slicker?
- Slicker can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce slicker?
- Slicker is pronounced /ˈslɪkɚ/ (US).
- What is the plural of slicker?
- The plural of slicker is slickers.
Words near slicker in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: slicker (page history and authors); slick (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: En-au-slicker.ogg.
Cite this entry: “slicker.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/slicker. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.