sleeked, ppl. a.
(sliːkt)
[f. prec. + -ed1.]
1. Smoothed; having a glossy skin, etc.
| 1513 Douglas æneid vi. xii. 15 All fischis..doith repair Ondir the slekit see of marbill hew. 1611 Florio, Cartêlla, a kind of sleeked pasteboord. 1616 B. Jonson Forest viii, Sleeked limmes, and finest blood. 1653 Urquhart Rabelais iii. viii, By reason of their..curled, frisling, sleeked smoothness. 1785 Burns To a Mouse i, Wee, sleeket, cowran, tim'rous beastie. 1818 Keats Endym. i. 468 As a dove Trembling its closed eyes and sleeked wings About me. 1861 C. M. Yonge Stokesley Secret (1880) 199 Captain Merrifield's fine sleeked cows were licking each other. |
2. Sc. Specious, flattering; artful; plausible.
| c 1400 Sc. Trojan War (Horstm.) ii. 1838 Oetus..Told a foule fenȝeit fortoune fals..With sleked wordis subtelly. 1513 Douglas æneid i. x. 27 Now him withaldis the Phenitiane Dido, And cuilȝeis him with slekit wordis sle. a 1585 Montgomerie Cherrie & Slae 547 With sleikit sophismis seiming sweit. 1776 C. Keith Farmer's Ha' xxvii, His sleekit speeches pass for true With ane and a'. 1823 Galt R. Gilhaize I. xii. 131, I did nae think the sleekit sinner had art enough to play 't. 1895 ‘H. Haliburton’ Dunbar 92 Sleekit he was, an' carefu' to conceal. |
Hence ˈsleekedness. rare—1.
| a 1693 Urquhart's Rabelais iii. xiii. 109 If that the polish'd sleekedness thereof be darken'd by gross Breathings. |