different between slippery vs cunning

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)

1. 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.

2. (figuratively, by extension) Evasive; difficult to pin down.

   a slippery person

   a slippery promise

3. (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.

4. 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.

5. (obsolete) Wanton; unchaste; loose in morals.
   • 1610, William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale, I. ii. 273:

     My wife is slippery? If thou wilt confess –

Synonyms

• (of a surface): greasy, slick, slimy, slippy, wet

Antonyms

• (of a surface): sticky

Derived terms

Related terms

• slip

Translations

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?n??
• IPA^(key): /?k?n??/

Etymology 1

From Middle English cunning, kunning, konnyng, alteration of earlier Middle English cunninde, kunnende, cunnand, from Old English cunnende, present participle of cunnan (“to know how to, be able to”), equivalent to con +? -ing. Cognate with Scots cunnand (“cunning”), German könnend (“able to do”), Icelandic kunnandi (“cunning”). More at con, can.

Adjective

cunning (comparative more cunning, superlative most cunning)

1. Sly; crafty; clever in surreptitious behaviour.

   • They are resolved to be cunning; let others run the hazard of being sincere.

2. (obsolete) Skillful, artful.

   • Esau was a cunning hunter.

   • a cunning workman
3. (obsolete) Wrought with, or exhibiting, skill or ingenuity; ingenious.

   cunning work
4. (US, colloquial, dated, New England) Cute, appealing.

   a cunning little boy

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Bartlett to this entry?)

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:wily

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English cunning, kunnyng, partially from Old English *cunning (verbal noun), from Old English cunnan (“to know how to, be able to”); partially from Old English cunnung (“knowledge, trial, probation, experience, contact, carnal knowledge”), from cunnian (“to search into, try, test, seek for, explore, investigate, experience, have experience of, to make trial of, know”), equivalent to con +? -ing.

Noun

cunning (countable and uncountable, plural cunnings)

1. Practical knowledge or experience; aptitude in performance; skill, proficiency; dexterity.
   • 2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 236d.

     indeed at this very moment he's slipped away with the utmost cunning into a form that's most perplexing to investigate.

2. Practical skill employed in a secret or crafty manner; craft; artifice; skillful deceit; art or magic.
   • c. 1610-11, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act III scene ii^[1]:

     Caliban: As I told thee before, I am subject to a tyrant, a sorcerer that by his cunning hath cheated me of the island.

3. The disposition to employ one's skill in an artful manner; craftiness; guile; artifice; skill of being cunning, sly, conniving, or deceitful.
4. The natural wit or instincts of an animal.

   the cunning of the fox or hare

5. (obsolete) Knowledge; learning; special knowledge (sometimes implying occult or magical knowledge).

Synonyms

• craftiness
• foxship
• list

Translations