Crossword clues for unctuous
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Unctuous \Unc"tu*ous\ (?; 135), a. [F. onctueux, LL. unctuosus, fr. L. unctus anointment, fr. ungere, unctum, to anoint. See Unguent.]
Of the nature or quality of an unguent or ointment; fatty; oily; greasy. ``The unctuous cheese.''
--Longfellow.Having a smooth, greasy feel, as certain minerals.
Bland; suave; also, tender; fervid; as, an unctuous speech; sometimes, insincerely suave or fervid. [1913 Webster] -- Unc"tu*ous*ly, adv. -- Unc"tu*ous*ness, n.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
late 14c., "oily, having a greasy or soapy feeling when touched," from Old French unctueus, from Medieval Latin unctuosus "greasy," from Latin unctus "act of anointing," from past participle stem of unguere "to anoint" (see unguent).\n
\nFigurative sense of "blandly ingratiating" is first recorded 1742, perhaps in part with a literal sense, but in part a sarcastic usage from unction in the meaning "deep spiritual feeling" (1690s), such as comes from having been anointed in the rite of unction. Related: Unctuously; unctuousness.
Wiktionary
a. 1 (context of a liquid or fatty substance English) oily or greasy. 2 (context of a wine, coffee, etc. English) Rich, lush, intense, with layers of concentrated, soft, velvety flavor. 3 (context by extension of a person English) profusely polite, especially unpleasantly so and insincerely earnest.
WordNet
adj. unpleasantly and excessively suave or ingratiating in manner or speech; "buttery praise"; "gave him a fulsome introduction"; "an oily sycophantic press agent"; "oleaginous hypocrisy"; "smarmy self-importance"; "the unctuous Uriah Heep" [syn: buttery, fulsome, oily, oleaginous, smarmy]
Usage examples of "unctuous".
In a word, after being tried out, the crisp, shrivelled blubber, now called scraps or fritters, still contains considerable of its unctuous properties.
I impute it, though, to their naturally unctuous natures, being rendered still more unctuous by the nature of their vocation, and especially by their pursuing their game in those frigid Polar Seas, on the very coasts of that Esquimaux country where the convivial natives pledge each other in bumpers of train oil.
He had the artificially unctuous voice of a man who had made soothing platitudes habitual.
Another stood by with a plastic drip-feed while Conner officiated with all the unctuous politeness of an underpaid head waiter.
Marcy spoke in a soft, unctuous voice that went ill with his tremendous physique.
Runkle shook hands enthusiastically, his full red lips expanding in an unctuous smile.
One was middle-aged, fat, unctuous and swordless, Kinu, their silk supplier.
The High Seat of House Baryn was blade-slender and blade-strong in a yellow coat adorned with gold braid, but too smoothly unctuous, too smooth altogether.
What looks to us now like the most unctuous kind of self-abasement was symbolic of civilisation.
Close up he was a small man, unctuous in manner and completely lacking in the presence that radiated from him on stage.
Ikey might be seen, his hands working in the gestures of unctuous trading, in the reeking hubbub of Rosemary Lane doing business among the festoons of second-hand clothes.
Ikey commanded was from the First Manhattan Bank of New York where the manager, wreathed in unctuous smiles, would come out of his office to greet him personally.
He kept Simon waiting while he clicked his way stubbornly through to the end of a pile, and then looked up with an unctuous affectation of attentiveness.
They united in only one thing and this was to berate the agent for his ill management of the estates, so that he who had once been oily and unctuous, a man of plenty and of ease, was now become anxious and harried and his flesh gone so that his skin hung upon him like an old garment.
There was a pause during which Flinx could hear unctuous AAnn syllables in the background.