greasy

Etymology

From Middle English gresi, gressy, equivalent to grease + -y.

adj

1. Having a slippery surface; having a surface covered with grease.
   a greasy mineral
   it was in the garage that Alec worked, […] doing mysterious greasy things. Grease blackened his hairy legs; grease had turned his white canvas shoes black; grease blackened his hands even beyond the wrist; grease made his short working trousers black and stiff. Yet he had the gift, which Mr Biswas admired, of being able to hold a cigarette between greasy fingers and greasy lips without staining it. 1961, V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr Biswas, London: André Deutsch, Part One, Chapter 2, p. 54
2. Containing a lot of grease or fat.
   c. 1795, Margaret Taylor, Mrs. Taylor’s Family Companion: or The Whole Art of Cookery Display’d, London: W. Lane, “To fry flat Fish,” p. 37, Before you dish them up, lay them upon a drainer before the fire sloping, for two or three minutes, which will prevent their eating greasy.
   With a skin full of alcohol and a probable overwhelming desire for a greasy kebab, I had evidently got myself into such a state that I was unable to locate the correct door to the fast food shop. 2010, Gavin Hoffen, Dandelion, page 3
   Nigel and Richard Bertinet go for butter. Jamie and Nigella both opt for olive oil, and Garten uses a mixture, spreading the bread generously with butter, then topping it with garlic and herbs in olive oil. Oil, to my taste, simply makes the bread seem greasy: it's great for dipping, but it doesn't seem to soak into the bread in the same way as butter – I've probably just got hopelessly rich Anglo-Saxon tastes, but for me, it's butter all the way. May 3, 2012, Felicity Cloake, “How to cook perfect garlic bread”, in the Guardian
3. (slang) shady, sketchy, dodgy, detestable, unethical.
   Julian: We're gonna fill the trailers up with furniture all right, boys, but we're gonna rent them out by the hour. Bubbles: Aw, that's greasy. 2004 April 25, “Trailer Park Boys episode "Rub N Tiz'zug"”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)
4. (obsolete) fat, bulky
5. (obsolete) gross; indelicate; indecent
   Now I am perfect hate, I lou’d but three things in the world, Philosophy, Thrift, and my self. Thou hast made me hate Philosophy. A Vsurers greasie Codpeece made me loath Thrift: but if all the Brewers Iades in the town can drug me from loue of my selfe, they shall doo more then e’re the seuen wise men of Greece could […] 1601, John Marston, Jack Drum’s Entertainment, London: Richard Olive, act I
6. (of a horse) Afflicted with the disease called grease.