The Collaborative International Dictionary
Slippery \Slip"per*y\, a. [See Slipper, a.]
Having the quality opposite to adhesiveness; allowing or causing anything to slip or move smoothly, rapidly, and easily upon the surface; smooth; glib; as, oily substances render things slippery.
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Not affording firm ground for confidence; as, a slippery promise.
The slippery tops of human state.
--Cowley. -
Not easily held; liable or apt to slip away.
The slippery god will try to loose his hold.
--Dryden. Liable to slip; not standing firm.
--Shak.Unstable; changeable; mutable; uncertain; inconstant; fickle. ``The slippery state of kings.''
--Denham.Uncertain in effect.
--L'Estrange.-
Wanton; unchaste; loose in morals. --Shak. Slippery elm. (Bot.)
An American tree ( Ulmus fulva) with a mucilagenous and slightly aromatic inner bark which is sometimes used medicinally; also, the inner bark itself.
A malvaceous shrub ( Fremontia Californica); -- so called on the Pacific coast.
Wiktionary
n. 1 ''Ulmus rubra'', a North American elm tree with a mucilaginous and slightly aromatic inner bark. 2 A malvaceous shrub ((taxlink Fremontia californica species noshow=1), now (taxlink Fremontodendron californicum species noshow=1)); so called on the Pacific coast.
WordNet
n. North American elm having rough leaves that are red when opening; yields a hard wood [syn: red elm, Ulmus rubra]
Usage examples of "slippery elm".
Dandelion, Gentian and Valerian for some reason have survived and the Homeopaths use many more, but such useful plants as Agrimony, Slippery Elm, Horehound, Bistort, Poplar, Bur Marigold, Wood Betony, Wood Sanicle, Wild Carrot, Raspberry leaves, and the Sarsaparillas are now only used by Herbalists.
There are hundreds of them: smooth black Fred Astaire canes and rough chewed alpenstocks, blackthorns and quarterstaffs, cudgels and swagger sticks, bamboo and ironwood, maple and slippery elm, canes from Tangier, Maine, Zurich, Panama City, Quebec, Togoland, the Dakotas and Borneo, resting in notched compartments that resemble arms racks in an armory.
A Slippery Elm compound excellent for coughs is made as follows: Cut obliquely one or more ounces of bark into pieces about the thickness of a match.
I went into the pantry last night to get slippery elm bark and there wasn't any sugar on the floor, and I've not been in the pantry today at all.
Bowley the cook and Ashnin passed out food from the goodly supply they had brought from the island, while Nordo made his way skillfully between the vessels with a compound of china clay and slippery elm bark for blistered paddle paws.
The kinesthetic memory of sifting salts and powders together came back to him and Antryg's deep voice, speaking of the qualities of certain plantsground holly for rheumatism, slippery elm for disorders of the bowels, the white berries of mistletoe for bleeding.
Mama like this'n it slide right out like a eel f'm a slippery elm.
A shaved slippery elm stick inserted deeply into the opening from which the child is born can be very effective, but it is always best to talk to your donier, who will know how strong a tea to make or how to insert the stick.
Externally, an infusion has been found useful in ophthalmia, and the tincture can be used as a local application for sprains, bruises, or skin diseases, alone, or in powder combined with an equal part of slippery elm bark and weak lye-water in a poultice.
He had also discovered that every shop, even the most unlikely, has a circle of daily customers who become its experts-the elderly gentlemen capping each other's list of imported cheeses, the ladies debating on the use of slippery elm bark, the teenagers intoning the life history of every member of every rock band.