slinky
/ˈslɪŋki/
slinky adjective: furtive, stealthy or catlike.
Adjective
slinky (comparative slinkier, superlative slinkiest)
- Furtive, stealthy or catlike.
- “But of all the awful, second-rate girls I ever met, she’s the worst! […] She’s a sly, creepy, slinky, made-up, insincere vampire! She’s common! She’s awful! She’s a cat!”1920 March – 1921 February, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter 19, in Indiscretions of Archie, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, […], published 1921, →OCLC
- The concert touched on all this. You could sense history in the various dances of the pianists’ left hands: the slinky syncopations of habanera; the manic but metronomic bounce, in swing, as if between two trampolines.2018 March 5, Brian Seibert, “Review: Tapping Out Some New World Rhythms”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
- Synonyms:
- sneaky
- Thin; lank; lean.
- Do you see that are tall, limber-timbered, slinky-lookin' man with the blue cloak and two long black cords a-hangin' from it with almighty big tassels a-danglin' to the eend^([sic]) of it like the lamp-rope there, a-carryin' part of the cloak folded on one arm like a Roman senator, and t'other arm...1836, Thomas Chandler Haliburton, The Clockmaker, volume 3, London: Richard Bentley, published 1843, page 163
- "Oh—that," said Mrs. Savaker, jerking her head in the direction of the defunct exciseman; "that war my husband, and war thow't a gude likeness. But it's not. It's not half red enough, an' a deal too slinky in the shouls for him."1871, Henry Holl, The Golden Bait, volume 3, page 9
- Synonyms:
- lithe
- Of a garment: close-fitting; clingy.
- The double-breasted blazer which is on every front row this season came with an elbow-length sleeve for spring, while jumpsuits, a signature of the label, came slinky and tailored or in a blowsier boiler suit silhouette.2017 October 2, Jess Cartner-Morle, “Stella McCartney lays waste to disposable fashion in Paris”, in the Guardian
- Synonyms:
- figure-hugging
Noun capitalized: Slinky
slinky meaning in Malayalam
slinky in Malayalam
- tight-fitting, close-fitting, figure-hugging
- പറ്റിച്ചേർന്നു കിടക്കുന്ന, ഇറുക്കമുള്ള, ഇറുകിപ്പിടിച്ചു കിടക്കുന്ന, ശരീരത്തിനോട് ഒട്ടിച്ചേർന്നു കിടക്കുന്ന, ലെെഗികോത്തേജനമുണ്ടാക്കുന്ന, കാമോദ്ദീപകമായ
- sinuous, willowy, graceful
- വശീകരണസമർത്ഥമായ, ചാരുതയുള്ള, നീണ്ടുമെലിഞ്ഞ, സുഭഗമായ, സ്നിഗ്ദ്ധമായ
Examples of slinky in a sentence
- When I wear something slinky and stylish, I feel like: “Bow-chick-a-wow-wow!
- Slinky and rubber stamper have to leap frog over each other.
- There were mermaids with gold chains around slinky long tails, swimming along with little merchildren.
Synonyms of slinky
Forms of slinky
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | slinkier |
| superlative | slinkiest |
| Noun | |
| plural | Slinkys |
| plural | Slinkies |
Origin of slinky
From slink + -y.
The term was coined in 1943 by Betty James which means sleek and graceful
Words formed from slinky
Words that rhyme with slinky
Questions about slinky
- What does slinky mean?
- Slinky means furtive, stealthy or catlike.
- What is slinky in Malayalam?
- Slinky in Malayalam is പറ്റിച്ചേർന്നു കിടക്കുന്ന, ഇറുക്കമുള്ള, ഇറുകിപ്പിടിച്ചു കിടക്കുന്ന. See Slinky meaning in Malayalam.
- What part of speech is slinky?
- Slinky can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce slinky?
- Slinky is pronounced /ˈslɪŋki/.
Words near slinky in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: slinky (page history and authors); Slinky (page history and authors); slinky (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). 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-us-slinky.ogg.
Cite this entry: “slinky.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/slinky. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.