slick

Etymology 1

From Middle English slicke, slike, slyke, from Old English slīc (“sleek, smooth; crafty, cunning, slick”), from Proto-Germanic *slīkaz (“sleek, smooth”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleyg-, *sleyǵ- (“to glide, smooth, spread”). Akin to Dutch sluik, dialectal Dutch sleek (“even, smooth”), Old Norse slíkr (“sleek, smooth”), Old English slician (“to make sleek, smooth, or glossy”).

adj

1. Slippery or smooth due to a covering of liquid; often used to describe appearances.
   This rain is making the roads slick.
   The top coating of lacquer gives this finish a slick look.
   His large round head was shaved slick.
2. Appearing expensive or sophisticated.
   They read all kinds of slick magazines.
3. Superficially convincing but actually untrustworthy.
   That new sales rep is slick. Be sure to read the fine print before you buy anything.
   The threat the most radical of them pose is evidently far greater at home than abroad: in one characteristically slick and chilling Isis video – entitled “a message to the Jordanian tyrant” – a smiling, long-haired young man in black pats the explosive belt round his waist as he burns his passport and his fellow fighters praise the memory of Zarqawi, who was killed in Iraq in 2006. 27 November 2014, Ian Black, “Courts kept busy as Jordan works to crush support for Isis”, in The Guardian
4. (often sarcastic) Clever, making an apparently hard task easy.
   Our new process for extracting needles from haystacks is extremely slick.
   That was a slick move, locking your keys in the car.
   I leave the train at Salisbury, where (in a very slick operation) another two-car set is added to the front of the train before it heads for London. November 16 2022, Paul Bigland, “From rural branches to high-speed arteries”, in RAIL, number 970, page 55
5. (US, West Coast slang) Extraordinarily great or special.
   That is one slick bicycle: it has all sorts of features!
6. Sleek; smooth.

noun

1. A covering of liquid, particularly oil.
   Careful in turn three — there's an oil slick on the road.
   The oil slick has now spread to cover the entire bay, critically endangering the sea life.
2. (by extension, hydrodynamics, US, dated) A rapidly-expanding ring of dark water, resembling an oil slick, around the site of a large underwater explosion at shallow depth, marking the progress through the water of the shock wave generated by the explosion.
3. Someone who is clever and untrustworthy.
4. A tool used to make something smooth or even.
5. (sports, automotive) A tire with a smooth surface instead of a tread pattern, often used in auto racing.
   You'll go much faster if you put on slicks.
6. (US, military slang) A helicopter.
7. (printing) A camera-ready image to be used by a printer. The "slick" is photographed to produce a negative image which is then used to burn a positive offset plate or other printing device.
   The project was delayed because the slick had not been delivered to the printer.
8. (publishing, slang) A glossy magazine.
   When Carver, wild to be published in a major slick, decided to accept the changes, Maryann accused him “of being a whore, of selling out to the establishment.” 2009-11-20, Stephen King, “Raymond Carver’s Life and Stories”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
9. A wide paring chisel used in joinery.
10. (fandom slang) In omegaverse fiction, the copious, lubricating bodily fluid produced by an omega in heat.
    I spent two fucking days locked up in that hotel room, miserable and hating myself and drenched in my own slick! 2017, "Tessa on Ice", quoted in Marianne Gunderson, "What is an omega?: Rewriting sex and gender in omegaverse fanfiction", thesis submitted to the University of Oslo, page 41
    For his ruts, Castiel orders slick from a single donor, who is, unbeknownst to him, Dean, who lives at the Roadhouse and is in contact with many of his colleagues and rescuees. 2019, Tessa Barone, "Just Go Find Yourself a Nice Alpha: Gender and Consent in Supernatural Fandom's Alpha/Beta/Omega Universe", thesis submitted to Oregon State University, page 32
    She observed another parallel to menstruation, namely the abundance of 'slick' that Omegas produce when they go into heat, which mainly functions as an anal lubricant. 2019, Chris van der Vegt, "The Second Genders: Utopia and Dystopia in Stranger Things Omegaverse Fanfiction", thesis submitted to Utrecht University, page 23

verb

1. To make slick.
   The surface had been slicked.
   So I slicked the broccoli with oil and seasonings and set it to roast. January 14, 2009, Melissa Clark, “Green, Gold and Pink: Fast, Easy and Delicious”, in New York Times

Etymology 2

noun

1. Alternative form of schlich