Adjective: oily
Comparison Forms
Synthetic
| Comparative | oilier |
| Superlative | oiliest |
Perifrastic
Sample Sentences
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oily machinery; oily rags; oily fish; oily cooking
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His clothes were apt to look oily and smell of eating-houses. [1853, Herman Melville, “Bartleby, the Scrivener”, in The Piazza Tales, New York: Dix, Edwards & Co, published 1856:]
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[…] overdressed young men of enigmatic appearance, with oily thick hair, shifty eyes, and hands covered with cheap rings, swaggered about smoking cigarettes and talking in loud, ostentatious voices. [1917, Robert Hichens, Wilderness, Chapter:]
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Dyes listed with the word “lake” indicate the dye is a fat-soluble version, meaning it can dissolve in oily foods or drinks. [2025 March 29, Kristen Rogers, “Over half of US states are trying to eliminate food dyes. Here’s what you can do now”, in CNN:]
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oily swells; oily seas
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There were no breakers and no waves, for not a breath of wind was stirring. Only a slight oily swell rose and fell like a gentle breathing, and showed that the eternal sea was still moving and living. [1895 May 29, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “After the Story”, in The Time Machine: An Invention, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC, page 195:]
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Near-synonyms: slick, buttery; smarmy
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[…] for I want that glib and oyly Art,
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To ſpeake and purpoſe not, ſince what I well entend
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Ile do’t before I ſpeake, […] [c. 1603–1606 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Nathaniel Butter, […], published 1608, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:]
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Mr. Carker the Manager, sly of manner, sharp of tooth, soft of foot, watchful of eye, oily of tongue, cruel of heart, nice of habit, sat with a dainty stedfastness and patience at his work, as if he were waiting at a mouse’s hole. [1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, “A Trifle of Management by Mr. Carker the Manager”, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 211:]
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‘He had an inflexible will beneath all that oily kindness which passed for spiritual […]’ [1914, Algernon Blackwood, The Damned:]
Adjectives inflected like oily
syrupy,
seemly,
seggsy,
snuffy,
snippy,
snitty,
sniffy,
snotty,
snouty,
snobby,
snoozy,
snooty,
snazzy,
snappy,
snarky,
snarly,
snassy,
snaily,
snacky,
snaggy, etc. (List truncated at 20 adjectives)
Etymology
From Middle English oylei, equivalent to oil + -y. Compare German ölig (“oily”), Swedish oljig (“oily”). See: German Adjectives '
ölig', Swedish Adjectives '
oljig'.