different between shifty vs slippery
shifty
English
Etymology
shift +? -y
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /???fti/
Adjective
shifty (comparative shiftier, superlative shiftiest)
- 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.
- 1929, Henry Handel Richardson, Ultima Thule, New York: Norton, Part 2, Chapter 3, p. 145,[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.
- 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]
- 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. […] ’
- 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.
- 1857, Charles Kingsley, Two Years Ago, Cambridge: Macmillan, Volume 1, Chapter 1, p. 34,[8]
Derived terms
- shiftily
- shiftiness
- shifty-eyed
Translations
References
shifty From the web:
- what shifty eyes mean
- what shifty means
- shifty what does it mean
- what does shifty eyes mean
- what do shifty eyes mean
- what causes shifty eyes
- what does shifty mean in basketball
- what is shifty in tagalog
slippery
English
Etymology
From Middle English slipperie, an extended form ( +? -y) of Middle English slipper, sliper (“slippery”), from Old English slipor (“slippery”), from Proto-Germanic *slipraz (“smooth, slippery”), equivalent to slip +? -er. Compare also Middle English slibbri, slubbri (“slippery”) borrowed from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German slibberich (“slippery”). Cognate with German schlüpfrig (“slippery”), Danish slibrig (“slippery”), Swedish slipprig (“slippery”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /?sl?p??i/, /?sl?p?i/
Adjective
slippery (comparative slipperier, superlative slipperiest)
- Of a surface, having low friction, often due to being covered in a non-viscous liquid, and therefore hard to grip, hard to stand on without falling, etc.
- Oily substances render things slippery.
- (figuratively, by extension) Evasive; difficult to pin down.
- a slippery person
- a slippery promise
- (obsolete) Liable to slip; not standing firm.
- 1602, William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, III. iii. 84:
- Which when they fall, as being slippery standers, / The love that leaned on them, as slippery too, / Do one pluck down another, and together / Die in the fall.
- 1602, William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, III. iii. 84:
- Unstable; changeable; inconstant.
- 1668, Sir John Denham
- He looking down
With scorn or pity on the slippery state
Of kings, will tread upon the neck of fate.
- He looking down
- 1668, Sir John Denham
- (obsolete) Wanton; unchaste; loose in morals.
- 1610, William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale, I. ii. 273:
- My wife is slippery? If thou wilt confess –
- 1610, William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale, I. ii. 273:
Synonyms
- (of a surface): greasy, slick, slimy, slippy, wet
Antonyms
- (of a surface): sticky
Derived terms
Related terms
- slip
Translations
slippery From the web:
- what slippery slope mean
- what slippery elm good for
- what's slippery elm
- what's slippery elm used for
- what's slippery slope
- what's slippery when wet
- what slippery means
- what slippery road
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