Word.ws English Dictionary

well-oiled

well-oiled adjective: well-run; smoothrunning; efficiently run.

Adjective

well-oiled (comparative more well-oiled, superlative most well-oiled)

  1. (idiomatic) Well-run; smoothrunning; efficiently run.
    • Pro-Trump political influencers have spent years building a well-oiled media machine that swarms around every major news story, creating a torrent of viral commentary that reliably drowns out both the mainstream media and the liberal opposition.2020 August 27, Kevin Roose, “What if Facebook Is the Real ‘Silent Majority’?”, in New York Times
  2. (idiomatic) Drunk.
    • Well, in 2000, a pair of well-oiled strangers hit the news and were arrested – after groping each other and undressing on a transatlantic flight – but it’s usually less extreme, as with the couple who were intensely snogging in 2020.2024 April 9, “In-flight canoodling: is it ever acceptable to spoon at 40,000ft?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
    • Swinging onto the Treherbert branch under the new OLE, the train's onboard Passenger Information Screens announce we have entered a 'no alcohol' zone. That doesn't seem to help, as some of the passengers who joined us earlier seem 'well oiled' already.2024 November 13, Paul Bigland, “Much to admire... but pockets of neglect”, in RAIL, number 1022, page 48
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see well, oiled.

well-oiled meaning in Bengali

well-oiled in Bengali

সুপরিচালিত, মসৃণভাবে চলমান, দক্ষতার সাথে পরিচালিত, মাতাল

Synonyms of well-oiled

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of well-oiled

Forms of well-oiled

comparativemore well-oiled
superlativemost well-oiled

Origin of well-oiled

The figurative sense of smoothrunning is an extension from the literal sense involving lubrication.

Phrases with well-oiled

Questions about well-oiled

What does well-oiled mean?
Well-oiled means well-run; smoothrunning; efficiently run.
What is well-oiled in Bengali?
Well-oiled in Bengali is সুপরিচালিত, মসৃণভাবে চলমান, দক্ষতার সাথে পরিচালিত. See Well-oiled meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is well-oiled?
Well-oiled is an adjective.

Words near well-oiled in the dictionary

  1. well-near
  2. well-nigh
  3. well-nourished
  4. well-off
  5. well-offness
  6. well-oiled
  7. well-oiled machine
  8. well-oiled machines
  9. well-order
  10. well-orderable
  11. well-ordered

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: well-oiled (page history and authors); well-oiled (Bengali Wiktionary) (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-well-oiled.ogg.

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