Slip·per·y a.
 1. Having the quality opposite to adhesiveness; allowing or causing anything to slip or move smoothly, rapidly, and easily upon the surface; smooth; glib; as, oily substances render things slippery.
 2. Not affording firm ground for confidence; as, a slippery promise.
    The slippery tops of human state.   --Cowley.
 3. Not easily held; liable or apt to slip away.
    The slippery god will try to loose his hold.   --Dryden.
 4. Liable to slip; not standing firm.
 5. Unstable; changeable; mutable; uncertain; inconstant; fickle. “The slippery state of kings.”
 6. Uncertain in effect.
 7. Wanton; unchaste; loose in morals.
 Slippery elm. Bot. (a) An American tree (Ulmus fulva) with a mucilagenous and slightly aromatic inner bark which is sometimes used medicinally; also, the inner bark itself. (b) A malvaceous shrub (Fremontia Californica); -- so called on the Pacific coast.

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 slippery elm
      n : North American elm having rough leaves that are red when
          opening; yields a hard wood [syn: red elm, Ulmus rubra]