oily

Etymology

From Middle English oylei, equivalent to oil + -y. Compare German ölig (“oily”), Swedish oljig (“oily”).

adj

1. Relating to or resembling oil.
2. Covered with or containing oil.
   His clothes were apt to look oily and smell of eating-houses. 1853, Herman Melville, Bartleby, the Scrivener
   […] 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. 1917, Robert Hichens, Wilderness, Chapter
3. (figurative) Excessively friendly or polite but insincere.
   ‘He had an inflexible will beneath all that oily kindness which passed for spiritual […]’ 1914, Algernon Blackwood, The Damned

noun

1. A marble with an oily lustre.
   Lustered (also called lusters, rainbows, oilies, and pearls). 1998, Joanna Cole, Stephanie Calmenson, Michael Street, Marbles: 101 ways to play
   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 […] 2001, Paul Webley, The economic psychology of everyday life, page 39
2. (in the plural, informal) Oilskins. (waterproof garment)