oily
adjectivenounattested in dialogue
- //ˈɔɪli//
Covered with or containing oil.
adjective
- 1
Covered with or containing oil.
oily machinery; oily rags; oily fish; oily cooking
His clothes were apt to look oily and smell of eating-houses.
[…] overdressed young men of enigmatic appearance, with oily thick hair, shifty eyes, and hands covered with cheap rings, swaggered about smoking cigarettes and talking in loud, ostentatious voices.
Dyes listed with the word “lake” indicate the dye is a fat-soluble version, meaning it can dissolve in oily foods or drinks.
- 2
Resembling oil.
oily swells; oily seas
There were no breakers and no waves, for not a breath of wind was stirring. Only a slight oily swell rose and fell like a gentle breathing, and showed that the eternal sea was still moving and living.
- 3
figurativeExcessively friendly or polite but insincere.
Near-synonyms: slick, buttery; smarmy
[…] for I want that glib and oyly Art, To ſpeake and purpoſe not, ſince what I well entend Ile do’t before I ſpeake, […]
Mr. Carker the Manager, sly of manner, sharp of tooth, soft of foot, watchful of eye, oily of tongue, cruel of heart, nice of habit, sat with a dainty stedfastness and patience at his work, as if he were waiting at a mouse’s hole.
‘He had an inflexible will beneath all that oily kindness which passed for spiritual […]’
Etymology
From Middle English oylei, equivalent to oil + -y. Compare German ölig (“oily”), Swedish oljig (“oily”).
noun
- 1
A marble with an oily lustre.
Lustered (also called lusters, rainbows, oilies, and pearls).
But marbles are not only used to play games: they are also traded. In this market, the value of the different kinds of marbles (oilies, emperors, etc.) is determined by local supply and demand and not by the price of the marbles […]
- 2
informalOilskins. (waterproof garment)
Forms
- plural
- oilies
- comparative
- oilier
- superlative
- oiliest