different between shifty vs slipper

English

Etymology

shift +? -y

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???fti/

Adjective

shifty (comparative shiftier, superlative shiftiest)

1. Subject to frequent changes in direction.
   • 1929, Henry Handel Richardson, Ultima Thule, New York: Norton, Part 2, Chapter 3, p. 145,^[2]

     Off he raced, shuffling his bare feet through the hot, dry, shifty sand.

   • 2002, Guy Vanderhaeghe, The Last Crossing, New York: Grove, Chapter 17, p. 190,^[3]

     The Kelsos crowding their horses up against the wagon, bumping it, making things shake inside: everything going shifty, unsteady.

2. (of a person's eyes) Moving from one object to another, not looking directly and steadily at the person with whom one is speaking.
   • 1886, George Manville Fenn, This Man’s Wife, Chapter 3, in Littel’s Living Age, Volume 168, No. 2178, 20 March, 1886, p. 761,^[4]

     […] his quick, shifty eyes turned from the manager to the lethal weapons over the chimney, then to the safe, then to the bank, and Mr. Thickens’s back.

   • 1914, G. K. Chesterton, “The Head of Cæsar” in The Wisdom of Father Brown, London: Cassell, 1928, p. 149,^[5]

     His tinted glasses were not really opaque, but of a blue kind common enough, nor were the eyes behind them shifty, but regarded me steadily.

   • 1993, Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy, Boston: Little, Brown, Chapter 1.4, p. 10,^[6]

     He was thin, unsure of himself, sweet-natured and shifty-eyed; and he was Lata’s favourite.

3. Having the appearance of being dishonest, criminal or unreliable.

   He was a shifty character in a seedy bar, and I checked my wallet was still there after talking to him.

   • 1999, J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace, New York: Viking, Chapter 23, p. 208,^[7]

     ‘I don’t trust him,’ he goes on. ‘He is shifty. He is like a jackal sniffing around, looking for mischief. […] ’

4. Resourceful; full of, or ready with, shifts or expedients.
   • 1857, Charles Kingsley, Two Years Ago, Cambridge: Macmillan, Volume 1, Chapter 1, p. 34,^[8]

     Shifty and thrifty as old Greek or modern Scot, there were few things he could not invent, and perhaps nothing he could not endure.

Derived terms

• shiftily
• shiftiness
• shifty-eyed

Translations

References

English

Etymology

slip +? -er

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sl?p?(r)/
• Rhymes: -?p?(r)

Noun

slipper (plural slippers)

1. A low soft shoe that can be slipped on and off easily.

   Synonyms: babouche, pantofle

2. Such a shoe intended for indoor use; a bedroom or house slipper.

3. (US, Hawaii) A flip-flop (type of rubber sandal).

   Synonyms: flip-flop, sandal, thong

4. A person who slips.
   • 1955, Father John Doe (Father Ralph Pfau), Sobriety and Beyond, Hazelden Publishing (1997), ?ISBN, page 130:

     He is a frequent “slipper,” but doesn’t seem to have sufficient intelligence upon which to ever build permanent sobriety and happiness.

   • 1995, Russ McDonald, “Sex, Lies, and Shakespearean Drama”, in Jeanne Addison Roberts (editor), part one of Peggy O’Brien (editor), Shakespeare Set Free: Teaching Twelfth Night and Othello, Simon and Schuster, ?ISBN, page 3:

     Virtually all human action is liable to opposing interpretations, depending mainly upon distance: to take the familiar case of the banana peel, the fall is painful to the slipper, hilarious to the spectator across the street.

   • 2001, Barry M. Levenson, Habeas Codfish: Reflections on Food and the Law, University of Wisconsin Press, ?ISBN, page 7:

     Slipping on a banana peel does not mean big bucks for the “slipper” if the “slippee” has a good law firm representing it.

5. A kind of apron or pinafore for children.
6. A kind of brake or shoe for a wagon wheel.
7. (engineering) A piece, usually a plate, applied to a sliding piece, to receive wear and permit adjustment; a gib.
8. A form of corporal punishment where the buttocks are repeatedly struck with a plimsoll; "the slipper".
   • 1981, Andrew Loudon, Staffroom mole leaks secret of his school's beatings book, Daily Mail and General Trust, World Corporal Punishment Research

     "Mrs Marlene Foster […] , an opponent of the slipper, said her son Gary had a bottom "as red as a beetroot" after he was punished for writing on desks. "

9. (euphemistic) The plimsoll or gym shoe used in this form of punishment.
   • 2004, James Morgan, Stretching Forward to Learn, World Corporal Punishment Research

     "All teachers had what was referred to as a 'slipper', but in reality was a cut down gym shoe designed for smacking our bottoms."

10. (medicine) A kind of bedpan urinal shaped like a shoe.

Hyponyms

• chinela

Derived terms

Translations

Descendants

• Malay: selipar

Further reading

• slipper on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Adjective

slipper (comparative more slipper, superlative most slipper)

1. (obsolete) slippery

Verb

slipper (third-person singular simple present slippers, present participle slippering, simple past and past participle slippered)

1. (Britain, Australia, New Zealand) To spank with a plimsoll as corporal punishment.
   • 1981, Andrew Loudon, Staffroom mole leaks secret of his school's beatings book, Daily Mail and General Trust, World Corporal Punishment Research

     "One boy was slippered five times in four days for offences such as missing detention, fooling about and being out of bounds."

Anagrams

• Rippels, Ripples, ripples

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

slipper

1. present of slippe

Swedish

Verb

slipper

1. present tense of slippa.