slick v.
1. (also slick over) to get something finished with or disposed of quickly.
| , , | ![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Sl. Dict. |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Robbers’ Roost 211: Mebbe we can slick it over. |
2. to swindle, to hoax, to cheat.
| Nick of the Woods III i: Ain’t I just slicked myself out of the paws of five mortal aborigines? | |
| Four Years at Yale 48: Slick [...] As a verb, the word signifies to secure the pledge of a man’s money or services in support of objects to which he really does not wish to give them. | |
| ‘A Hard Road to Ride’ in Hobo’s Hornbook 248: I’ve slicked the bulls at De Queen. | |
| ‘Konky Mohair’ in et al. Life (1976) 104: I’ve always been fair with my people; / I always abide by the rules. / Now the young whores is trying to outslick me, / And the tricks are no longer fools. | |
| Dopefiend (1991) 25: Don’t even try to slick me out of none of my dope. | |
| (con. 1930s) The Avenue, Clayton City (1996) 68: A Jew [...] ’ll rob you blind and jolly you along with a funny story the whole time he’s slicking you out of your money. | |
| Bonfire of the Vanities 475: You been slicking me some kinda bad, bad, bad, but I’m gonna give you a chance to make up for it. |
In phrases
(US black) a manicure parlor.
| Man About Harlem 18 Apr. [synd. col.] [T]his lovely lass digs the dirt from your feelers at Charity’s slick-’m and glick-’em shop. |
a derog. term for a Jew, implying duplicitous, persuasive talk .
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 61: Other labels, slick-em-plenty, fast-talkin Charlie [...] characterized the Jew — particularly the Jewish merchant. |
1. (US) to tidy (oneself), to make neat; thus slicked up, tidy, slick over, to tidy oneself up (peremtorily).
| Richmond (VA) Enquirer 22 Aug. 4/1: She calls it ‘slicking up the room’ [DA]. | |
| Major Downing 43: The house was all slicked up as neat as a pin, and the things in every room all sot to rights. | |
| New Purchase I 72: The caps most in vogue then were made of dark, coarse, knotted twine, like a cabbage-net [...] worn, as the wives themselves said— ‘to save slicking up every day, and to hide dirt!’. | |
| Nature and Human Nature I 360: I might slick up for a party. | |
| Atlantic Monthly May 571/2: ‘Where’s Kate?’ ‘Up stairs, a-slickin’ up’ [DA]. | |
| Tom Sawyer 263: Come down when you are slicked up enough. | |
 | Woodstock Sentinel (IL) 27 May 3/4: ‘The first one was slicked up and smart appearin’; he had let on that he had money’. | |
| Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 37: It wasn’t a female that he had ‘slicked up’ for. | |
| Ruggles of Red Gap (1917) 284: I slicked up some and went on around to her house. | |
| Arrowsmith 19: It produces the paint that slicks up your house. | |
| Sudden 116: Slick yoreself up, buy a new shirt. | |
| (con. WWI) ‘Fear’ in Mason Fighting American (1945) 443: Slick up a bit and come into my hutch [...] Dinner in half a tick. | |
| Run For Home (1959) 170: He was not getting slicked up to go ‘on the prowl’. | |
| Iron Orchard (1967) 115: Wouldn’t no woman have nothin’ to do with you if you was slicked up and sober—lest it was a woman goat! | |
| Killing Time 177: The yardman was all slicked up. | |
| Flaws in the Glass 13: Morning again: a quick slick-over, eyes and armpits. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | (con. 1920s) Legs 225: You can get slicked up in your new fiddle. |
2. in fig. use, to arrange, to defeat, to ‘make good’.
| Torchy 106: Now if you give me time I can slick up an answer so it’ll sound like the truth and mean something else; but as an offhand liar I’m a frost. | |
| From Here to Eternity (1998) 216: I’d rather work with you than Prewitt, anyway. You and me can really slick them up. |
see sense 1 above.