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Slippery vs Flippant - What's the difference?

slippery | flippant | Related terms |

Slippery is a related term of flippant.


As adjectives the difference between slippery and flippant

is that slippery is of a surface, having low friction, often due to being covered in a non-viscous liquid, and therefore hard to grip, hard to stand on without falling, etc while flippant is (archaic) glib; speaking with ease and rapidity.

slippery

English

Adjective

(er)
  • Of a surface, having low friction, often due to being covered in a non-viscous liquid, and therefore hard to grip, hard to stand on without falling, etc.
  • Oily substances render things slippery .
  • (figuratively, by extension) Evasive; difficult to pin down.
  • a slippery person
    a slippery promise
  • (obsolete) Liable to slip; not standing firm.
  • * 1602 , , III. iii. 84:
  • Which when they fall, as being slippery' standers, / The love that leaned on them, as ' slippery too, / Do one pluck down another, and together / Die in the fall.
  • unstable; changeable; inconstant
  • * Denham
  • The slippery state of kings.
  • (obsolete) wanton; unchaste; loose in morals
  • * 1610 , , I. ii. 273:
  • My wife is slippery ? If thou wilt confess –

    Derived terms

    * slippery as an eel * slippery elm * slippery nipple * slippery slope

    Synonyms

    * (of a surface) greasy, slick, slimy, slippy, wet

    Antonyms

    * (of a surface) sticky

    flippant

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (archaic) glib; speaking with ease and rapidity
  • * Barrow
  • It becometh good men, in such cases, to be flippant and free in their speech.
  • nimble; limber.
  • Showing disrespect through a casual attitude, levity, and a lack of due seriousness; pert.
  • * Burke
  • a sort of flippant , vain discourse
  • * 1998 , , The Metaphysical Touch
  • The conversations had grown more adult over the years—she was less flippant , at least.
  • * 2000 , Anthony Howard and Jason Cowley, Decline and Fall, New Statesman, March 13, 2000
  • In the mid-1950s we both wrote for the same weekly, where her contributions were a good deal more serious and less flippant than mine.
  • * 2004 , , The Easy Way to Stop Smoking , page 147
  • Our society treats smoking flippantly as a slightly distasteful habit that can injure your health. It is not. It is drug addiction.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Antonyms

    * serious

    Derived terms

    * flippancy

    See also

    * irreverent * pert * facetious * frivolous