slippery

1 given to acting in secret and to concealing one's intentions a bar where a lot of slippery characters were known to hang out Synonyms furtive, shady, shifty, sneaky, sly, sneaking, stealthyRelated Words artful, crafty, cunning, devious, foxy, guileful, slick, wily; close, closemouthed, reticent, secretive; clandestine, covert, dark; deceitful, deceiving, deceptive, devious, duplicitous, trickish, tricky, underhand, underhanded; cheating, crooked, defrauding, dishonest, dissembling, double-dealing, knavish, two-faced; lying, mendacious, untrustworthy, untruthful; insidious, perfidious, serpentine, treacherousNear Antonyms aboveboard, forthright, plainspoken, straightforward; candid, direct, foursquare, frank, open, plain; honest, trustworthy, truthful

2 hard to find, capture, or isolate a slippery concept that we had trouble understanding Synonyms evasive, fugitive, elusiveRelated Words cagey (also cagy), shifty; ephemeral, evanescent, fleeting, impermanent, momentary, passing, short-lived, temporary, transient, transitory; inaccessible, inconvenient, unapproachable, unattainable, unavailable, unobtainable, unreachable, untouchableNear Antonyms accessible, approachable, attainable, available, convenient, obtainable, reachable

3 having or being a surface so smooth as to greatly reduce traction had trouble keeping upright on the slippery ice Synonyms greased, greasy, lubricated, oiled, slicked, slick, slippy, slitheryRelated Words brushed, buffed, burnished, glossed, ground, polished, rubbed, shined; coated, glazed, waxed; soapy, waxy; rasped, sandblasted, sanded, sandpapered, scoured, scraped, scrubbedNear Antonyms coarsened, rough, roughened, scuffed, uneven