Slippery vs Voluble - What's the difference?
slippery | voluble | Related terms |
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.
(figuratively, by extension) Evasive; difficult to pin down.
(obsolete) Liable to slip; not standing firm.
* 1602 , , III. iii. 84:
unstable; changeable; inconstant
* Denham
(obsolete) wanton; unchaste; loose in morals
* 1610 , , I. ii. 273:
(of a person or a manner of speaking) Fluent or having a ready flow of speech; garrulous or loquacious; tonguey.
* , Love's Labour's Lost , act 3, scene 1:
* 1853 , , Villette , ch. 19:
* 1904 , , The Sea Wolf , ch. 26:
Expressed readily or at length and in a fluent manner.
* 1886 , , The Minister's Charge , ch. 6:
* 1910 , , "The Reticence of Lady Anne" in Reginald in Russia and Other Sketches :
* 1922 , , Ulysses , Episode 9:
Easily rolling or turning; having a fluid, undulating motion.
* 1935 , , Zulu Paraclete: A Sentimental Record , Peter Davies,
(botany) Twisting and turning like a vine.
Slippery is a related term of voluble.
As adjectives the difference between slippery and voluble
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 voluble is (of a person or a manner of speaking) fluent or having a ready flow of speech; garrulous or loquacious; tonguey.slippery
English
Adjective
(er)- Oily substances render things slippery .
- a slippery person
- a slippery promise
- 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.
- The slippery state of kings.
- My wife is slippery ? If thou wilt confess –
Derived terms
* slippery as an eel * slippery elm * slippery nipple * slippery slopeSynonyms
* (of a surface) greasy, slick, slimy, slippy, wetAntonyms
* (of a surface) stickyvoluble
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- A most acute juvenal; voluble and free of grace!
- What fun shone in his eyes as he recalled some of her fine speeches, and repeated them, imitating her voluble delivery!
- But Wolf Larsen seemed voluble , prone to speech as I had never seen him before.
- [H]e heard the voice of the drunken woman, now sober, poured out in voluble' remorse, and in ' voluble promise of amendment for the future, to every one who passed, if they would let her off easy.
- As a rule Lady Anne's displeasure became articulate and markedly voluble after four minutes of introductory muteness.
- In the daylit corridor he talked with voluble pains of zeal.
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- Seen from the west, their sky-line gallops away north and south like a sea-serpent in voluble motion.