to slip through
58
4.2
- phrasal verb
- /slɪp θru/
- Informal
:
pasar desapercibido
- Every time I think he's within my grasp, he slips through my fingers.
- slip through the cracks
Didn't we say like he slipped through the cracks?
- Didn't we say like he slipped through the cracks?
- But sometimes some things slip through the crack.
- Some folks will slip through the cracks in all of these organisations.
- It was having safety net of durable safety net to keep people from slipping through the cracks.
- Guess who's not getting a budget if they don't do everything to take the power back that Congress has let slip through their fingers?
- They let us slip through the risky zone and we were able to sail around the dangerous reefs.
- It's something that I do never, I never, ever let my children feel that they can slip through any net.
- So it's slipped through the cracks twice and then it makes it to my door and it's either the wrong order altogether, has the wrong ingredients on it.
- But some kids slip through and I think it's on all of us to think about what more we can do to be able to help kids to really realise their full potential.
Examples
-
Just slip through there, and off you go on your way.
-
You just slipped through the cracks.
-
"He slipped through an open window."
-
However, things slip through the cracks here and there.
-
It's wild how certain things like this slip through the cracks.
-
Some folks will slip through the cracks in all of these organisations.
-
I watched her slip through the cracks and into the system.
-
That must have slipped through the cracks.
-
They'd never expect a single ship to slip through their defenses that way.
Fiction book (1992) -
He was able to slip through the crowd without being noticed.
Synonyms
699
2.8
To move or take something quietly so others do not notice
262
2.7
To give something to someone quietly or secretly
191
4.4
To go without comment or challenge
39
3.8
To leave a place quietly without anyone noticing
32
3.0
For time to pass without anyone noticing
17
3.0
Go past without being noticed or taken
11
3.8
To go past quickly without anyone noticing, as with time or chances
9
6.9
To get away from someone who is following you
2
4.2
Time passes smoothly without you noticing
1
5.8
Just barely manage to succeed or avoid failure
1
6.3
To go unnoticed by people or officials
1
3.9
Time that passes quickly without you noticing
Antonyms
How Noticeable
11
3.0
244
3.2
- Informal
58
4.2
20
3.7
- Informal
1
6.3
Surface Forms
Morphology
The core meaning 'to pass easily or quickly through' is directly compositional from 'slip' (to move smoothly/quietly) + 'through' (from one side to the other), so a B1 learner who knows the parts can infer the physical sense. The extended sense 'escape notice or be overlooked' is a straightforward metaphorical extension of that physical image (slipping through unnoticed) and is cross-linguistically common, so it remains predictable rather than idiomatic.
Etymology
Slip through comes from the picture of something small sliding out of your hand or through a narrow gap, like a coin that slips through your fingers. So it now means 'to escape', 'to be missed', or 'to be forgotten', as when a chance or a detail quietly 'slips through' without you noticing.