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Glite Dictionary
🐟 Slippery 🫥 Evasive
eely

eely

1 9.1
Slippery and hard to hold like a wet fish
  • adjective
  • /ˈiːli/
: resbaladizo
  • The soap became so eely that I could barely keep it in my hand.

Examples

  • He gave an eely handshake that made me laugh.

  • The eely fish slipped through my fingers.

  • The politician was eely when answering difficult questions, always avoiding a direct response.

  • Why is this surface so eely?

  • The soap became so eely that I could barely keep it in my hand.

  • Why is this surface so eely and hard to grip?

  • The fish was so eely that it slipped right out of my hands.

Synonyms

slimy
vseely
35 2.5

Covered in a wet, slippery layer, like on fish or rocks

is slippery by being hard to hold not mainly wet and sticky
slithery
vseely
2 4.4

A surface or thing that is smooth and slippery and lets things slide easily

is slippery so it is hard to hold rather than merely smooth

How Slippery

slick
14 5.8
eely
1 9.1
slippery
87 1.0
slimy
35 2.5
oily
40 1.0

Surface Forms

eely positive

Morphology

eely = eel (transparent) = eel + y

Direct adjectival formation from 'eel' + '-y' yields 'having qualities of an eel' and the meaning 'slippery' is literal and immediately inferable.

Etymology

Eely comes from eel, a long slippery fish, plus the small ending -y that means 'like' or 'full of'. So something eely is 'like an eel' — slippery and hard to hold.