ˈsliddery, a. Now dial.
Forms: 3 slid(d)ri, 5 slydrye, 6 slyddry, -rie, 6–7 slidrie, 8 slidd'ry, 8–9 sliddry; 3–5 slideri, 4 -ery, slydery, sledery (6 Sc. -erie), 5, 7 (9) slidderie, 9 sliddery.
[f. slidder v. + -y. Cf. MDu. sliderich.]
1. Slippery; on which one may readily slip.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 252 To wel we hit wuteð hu þe wei of þisse worlde is sliddri. c 1280 in Horstm. Altengl. Leg. (1875) 221 Bi a luytel bosk he tok his hondlyng, And set his feet on a slidri bas. c 1325 Gloss. W. de Bibbesw. in Wright Voc. 160 [The way is] slidery. 1382 Wyclif Jer. xxxviii. 22 Thei han drenchid thee doun in the myre, and in the sledery thing thi feet. c 1480 Henryson Fables, Preach. Swallow xxxi, Slonkis and slaik maid slidderie with the sleit. 1489 Caxton Faytes of A. ii. xxxix. 163 They can unuthe stande upon theyre fete so slydrye it is. 1513 Douglas æneid x. vi. 42 Slyddry glar so from wallis went That oft thar feyt was smyttyn vp on loft. a 1724 in Ramsay Tea-table Misc. (1876) II. 219 Is not this warld a slidd'ry ball? And thinks men strange to catch a fall? 1827 J. Wilson Noctes Ambr. Wks. 1855 II. 9 Slimy and sliddery as the sea-weed. 1874 A. Hislop Sc. Anecd. 147 The floor was as sliddery as ice. |
b. Uncertain, unstable, changeable, fleeting. (Cf. slidder a. 1 c.)
| a 1400 Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS. xxiii. 980 Þe eȝen of vr inward þouht Lyft vp from slideri þinge. 1567 Gude & Godlie B. (S.T.S.) 102 Full slyddrie is the sait that thay on sit. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. I. 292 Quhair may be seine how vnconstant and slidrie was the end of that battell. c 1610 Sir W. Mure Sonn. x. Wks. (S.T.S.) I. 56 Quhose othe & promeis ar a slidrie ground To build wpon, to make a man assuird. 1640 Canterburians Self-Convict. 32 A full peace in tearmes so generall, so ambiguous, so slidderie. 1786 Burns Farewell Brethren St. James's Lodge i, Tho' I to foreign lands must hie, Pursuing Fortune's slidd'ry ba'. 1818 Scott Br. Lamm. xv, It will be present service..which, in these sliddery times, will be expected by a man like the Marquis. |
2. Inclined or prone to slip. rare—1.
| 1382 Wyclif Lam. iv. 18 Thei maden slidery oure steppis in the weie of oure stretes. |
3. Of a smooth or slippery nature. Also fig., sly, deceitful.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 74 Þe tunge is sliddri, uor heo wadeð ine wete. 1382 Wyclif Prov. xxvi. 28 The slideri mouth werchith fallingis. 1551 Abp. Hamilton Catech. 76 Thai ar lyk to ane slederie eil. 1791 J. Learmont Poems 45 Unless some slidd'ry means he us'd. 1816 G. Muir Clydesdale Minstrelsy 8 (E.D.D.), Lawyers fam'd for slidd'ry gabs. 1868 W. Shelley Flowers 181 Some gleg-gabbit slidderie lier. |