different between slick vs careless

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sl?k/
• Rhymes: -?k

Etymology 1

From Middle English slicke, slike, slyke, from Old English sl?c (“sleek, smooth; crafty, cunning, slick”), from Proto-Germanic *sl?kaz (“sleek, smooth”),from Proto-Indo-European *sleyg-, *sley?- (“to glide, smooth, spread”). Akin to Dutch sluik, dialectal Dutch sleek (“even, smooth”), Old Norse slíkr (“sleek, smooth”), Old English slician (“to make sleek, smooth, or glossy”).

Adjective

slick (comparative slicker, superlative slickest)

1. Slippery or smooth due to a covering of liquid; often used to describe appearances.

   This rain is making the roads slick.

   The top coating of lacquer gives this finish a slick look.

   His large round head was shaved slick.

2. Appearing expensive or sophisticated.

   They read all kinds of slick magazines.

3. Superficially convincing but actually untrustworthy.

   That new sales rep is slick. Be sure to read the fine print before you buy anything.

   • 2014, Ian Black, "Courts kept busy as Jordan works to crush support for Isis", The Guardian, 27 November 2014:

     The threat the most radical of them pose is evidently far greater at home than abroad: in one characteristically slick and chilling Isis video – entitled “a message to the Jordanian tyrant” – a smiling, long-haired young man in black pats the explosive belt round his waist as he burns his passport and his fellow fighters praise the memory of Zarqawi, who was killed in Iraq in 2006.

4. (often used sarcastically) Clever, making an apparently hard task easy.

   Our new process for extracting needles from haystacks is extremely slick.

   That was a slick move, locking your keys in the car.

5. (US, West Coast slang) Extraordinarily great or special.

   That is one slick bicycle: it has all sorts of features!

6. sleek; smooth

Translations

Noun

slick (plural slicks)

1. A covering of liquid, particularly oil.

2. (by extension, hydrodynamics, US, dated) A rapidly-expanding ring of dark water, resembling an oil slick, around the site of a large underwater explosion at shallow depth, marking the progress through the water of the shock wave generated by the explosion.
3. Someone who is clever and untrustworthy.
4. A tool used to make something smooth or even.
5. (sports, automotive) A tire with a smooth surface instead of a tread pattern, often used in auto racing.

   Synonyms: slick tire, slick tyre

6. (US, military slang) A helicopter.
7. (printing) A camera-ready image to be used by a printer. The "slick" is photographed to produce a negative image which is then used to burn a positive offset plate or other printing device.

8. A wide paring chisel used in joinery.

Coordinate terms

(phenomenon from underwater explosion):

• crack

Translations

Verb

slick (third-person singular simple present slicks, present participle slicking, simple past and past participle slicked)

1. To make slick.

   The surface had been slicked.

Related terms

• slick as snot
• slick cam
• slicker
• slicken
• slick back
• slick down
• slickstone
• slick-tech
• slick up

Etymology 2

Noun

slick

1. Alternative form of schlich

Anagrams

• Licks, licks

English

Etymology

From Middle English careles, from Old English carl?as (“careless, reckless, void of care, free from care, free”), equivalent to care +? -less. Cognate with Icelandic kærulaus (“careless, negligent”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k??l?s/, /?k??l?s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?k??l?s/
• Rhymes: -??(?)l?s

Adjective

careless (comparative more careless, superlative most careless)

1. Not concerned or worried (about). [from 11^thc.]

   • "He was here," observed Drina composedly, "and father was angry with him."
     "What?" exclaimed Eileen. "When?"
     "This morning, before father went downtown."
     Both Selwyn and Lansing cut in coolly, dismissing the matter with a careless word or two; and coffee was served—cambric tea in Drina's case.

2. Not giving sufficient attention or thought, especially concerning the avoidance of harm or mistakes. [from 16^thc.]
   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 49:

     I don't find the pose of careless youth charming and engaging any more than you find the pose of careworn age fascinating and eccentric, I should imagine.

3. (archaic) Free from care; unworried, without anxiety. [from 11^thc.]

   • Good-humored, easy, and careless, he presided over his whale-boat as if the most deadly encounter were but a dinner, and his crew all invited guests.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:careless

Derived terms

• carelessly
• carelessness

Translations

Anagrams

• acreless, raceless, rescales