| / English Dictionary |
SLEEK
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Having a smooth, gleaming surface reflecting light
Example:
slick seals and otters
Synonyms:
satiny; silken; silklike; silky; sleek; slick
Classified under:
Similar:
bright (emitting or reflecting light readily or in large amounts)
Derivation:
sleekness (the smooth feel of silk fabric)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Designed or arranged to offer the least resistant to fluid flow
Example:
a streamlined convertible
Synonyms:
aerodynamic; flowing; sleek; streamlined
Classified under:
Similar:
smooth (having a surface free from roughness or bumps or ridges or irregularities)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Well-groomed and neatly tailored; especially too well-groomed
Example:
sleek figures in expensive clothes
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
groomed (neat and smart in appearance; well cared for)
Derivation:
sleekness (the quality of being well-groomed and neatly tailored)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Make slick or smooth
Synonyms:
sleek; slick
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Hypernyms (to "sleek" is one way to...):
polish; shine; smooth; smoothen (make (a surface) shine)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Context examples:
The Pointer, also known as the English Pointer, has a well-muscled, athletic body and a short, sleek coat that comes in primarily white, but may be liver, lemon, black or orange; solid, patched or speckled.
(English Pointer, NCI Thesaurus)
I asked him what it was, and he said, with a sort of rapture in his voice and bearing:— "A kitten, a nice little, sleek playful kitten, that I can play with, and teach, and feed—and feed—and feed!"
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
They went in; and while the sleek, well-tied parcels of “Men's Beavers” and “York Tan” were bringing down and displaying on the counter, he said—“But I beg your pardon, Miss Woodhouse, you were speaking to me, you were saying something at the very moment of this burst of my amor patriae.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
I had just driven the wedge safely in, and everything was going as I wished; but the cursed wedge was too smooth and suddenly sprang out, and the tree closed so quickly that I could not pull out my beautiful white beard; so now it is tight and I cannot get away, and the silly, sleek, milk-faced things laugh!
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
A quarter of a mile inland we came upon the holluschickie—sleek young bulls, living out the loneliness of their bachelorhood and gathering strength against the day when they would fight their way into the ranks of the Benedicts.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
The one was long and thin, with melancholy features, while the other was fat and sleek, with a loud voice and the air of a man who is not to be gainsaid.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
He was certainly a splendidly built young athlete, and one could not have wished to look upon a finer sight as his white skin, sleek and luminous as a panther’s, gleamed in the light of the morning sun, with a beautiful liquid rippling of muscles at every movement.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I might have known it by the sleek face and the slavish manner too monk-ridden and craven in spirit to answer back a rough word.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
There was none of that white sleek skin and shimmering play of sinew which made Wilson a beautiful picture, but in its stead there was a rugged grandeur of knotted and tangled muscle, as though the roots of some old tree were writhing from breast to shoulder, and from shoulder to elbow.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I remember well that, at the siege of Retters, there was a little, sleek, fat clerk of the name of Chaucer, who was so apt at rondel, sirvente, or tonson, that no man dare give back a foot from the walls, lest he find it all set down in his rhymes and sung by every underling and varlet in the camp.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
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