1. Home
2. Idioms
3. slick

slick

---

---

*slick as a whistle

quickly and cleanly; quickly and skillfully. (*Also: as ~.) Tom took a broom and a mop and cleaned the place up as slick as a whistle. slick as a whistle, Sally pulled off the bandage.

See also: slick, whistle

slick something down

to brush or comb down hair, usually with some sort of dressing or water. He used something gooey—grease or something—to slick his hair down. Please slick down your hair. You look a mess.

See also: down, slick

slick something up

to tidy up something or some place. I have to slick this house up a little. Please slick up this room before company gets here.

See also: slick, up

slick as a whistle

Very-smooth and neat; also, smoothly, quickly, easily. For example, That salesman is as slick as a whistle, or The fence post went in place slick as a whistle. The allusion in this simile, first recorded in 1830, is not totally clear, but presumably it refers either to the ease of producing a whistle or to its clear tone.

See also: slick, whistle

slick back

v.

To cause something, especially hair, to lie flat by making it moist or oily and brushing it back: He wet his hands and slicked back his hair. She slicks her curls back with gel.

See also: back, slick

slick

1. mod. clever; glib. His talk is slick, but his action is zotz.

2. mod. excellent. That is a slick idea.

3. n. a high-quality magazine printed on slick [coated] paper. The slicks are all carrying ads for products and services that couldn’t even be mentioned a few years ago.

4. n. a racing tire. (Auto racing.) That set of wheels has slicks. I wonder why.

slick-chick

n. an attractive and cute girl. Tiffany is a slick-chick. I wonder if she’d go out with me.