Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of or relating to oil.
  • adjective Impregnated, smeared with, or containing oil; greasy.
  • adjective Excessively suave or ingratiating. synonym: unctuous.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Consisting of oil; containing oil; having some of the qualities of oil: as, oily matter; an oily fluid.
  • Appearing as if oiled; resembling oil.
  • Fat; greasy.
  • Figuratively, unctuous; smooth; insinuatingly and smoothly sanctimonious; blandly pious; fawning.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Consisting of oil; containing oil; having the nature or qualities of oil; unctuous; oleaginous.
  • adjective Covered with oil; greasy; hence, resembling oil.
  • adjective Smoothly subservient; supple; compliant; plausible; insinuating.
  • adjective (Bot.) the sesame.
  • adjective the oil palm.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Relating to oil.
  • adjective Smeared with or containing oil.
  • adjective figuratively Excessively friendly or polite so as to sound insincere.
  • noun A marble with an oily lustre.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective smeared or soiled with grease or oil
  • adjective coated or covered with oil
  • adjective containing an unusual amount of grease or oil
  • adjective unpleasantly and excessively suave or ingratiating in manner or speech

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From oil + -y.

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Examples

  • In utilizing that, our existing assets, we are stepping into -- we're situated more in what they call the oily or the more liquid-rich Eagle Ford Shale.

    unknown title 2011

  • That is, I felt my hair was greasy and skin oily up to then.

    Swell Season on Boing Boing Video Boing Boing 2009

  • That is, I felt my hair was greasy and skin oily up to then.

    Boing Boing 2009

  • If this failed, she might be injected with male hormones that made her skin oily, pimply, and hairy.

    Good News and Bad News About Breast Cancer 1996

  • If this failed, she might be injected with male hormones that made her skin oily, pimply, and hairy.

    Good News and Bad News About Breast Cancer 1996

  • He bowed, and scraped, and said in oily tones: O thou good man of holy ways!

    The Breakfast of the Birds, and Other Stories 1947

  • He is just plain oily and there’s not an ounce of truth in anything he says.

    Get Rich Or Die Tryin | ATTACKERMAN 2008

  • Skin gone way oily, which is a song-normal I'm-sick thing.

    Monday monday 2009

  • But since all oily matter is most difficult to be washed out and spots a cloth, and the sea is oily, that is the reason why it doth not scour as well as fresh and that it is oily, even Aristotle himself asserts, for salt in his opinion hath some oil in it, and therefore makes candles, when sprinkled on them, burn the better and clearer than before.

    Essays and Miscellanies 2004

  • But since all oily matter is most difficult to be washed out and spots a cloth, and the sea is oily, that is the reason why it doth not scour as well as fresh and that it is oily, even Aristotle himself asserts, for salt in his opinion hath some oil in it, and therefore makes candles, when sprinkled on them, burn the better and clearer than before.

    Symposiacs 2004

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