sleeky

English

Etymology

From sleek +‎ -y.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsliːki/
• Rhymes: -iːki

Adjective

sleeky (comparative sleekier, superlative sleekiest)

1. sleek; slick
   • 1790, Joanna Baillie, Poems, &c. (1790)‎^[1]:

     When all is o'er, out to the door they run, With new comb'd sleeky hair, and glist'ning cheeks, Each with some little project in his head.

   • 1841, Various, Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 1, September 5, 1841‎^[2]:

     He thought that the moulting season was over, and that he was rejoicing in the fulness of a sleeky plumage, and by his side was a Java sparrowess, chirping and hopping about, rendering the cage as populous to him as though he were the tenant of a bird-fancier's shop.

   • 1920, John Freeman, Poems New and Old‎^[3]:

     Even when with heavy / Plume and pall / The sleeky coaches roll by, / Coffin, flowers and all, / He laughs, for he sees / Crouched on the coffin a small / Yellowy shape go by— / Death, uneasy and melancholy.

2. slick; sly; untrustworthy
   • 1905, George Bernard Shaw, The Irrational Knot‎^[4]:

     Why, I thought he was a straight-haired, sleeky, canting snake of a man.

Anagrams

• Kelsey, skeely, yeleks