sleek
/sliːk
/adjective
1(Of hair, fur, or skin) smooth and glossy: he was tall, with sleek, dark hair...
- It had sleek fur, and whiskers that stretched away from the face.
- Her hair was sleek and shiny, falling a little past her shoulders but shorter in front with thin, wispy bangs.
- My chestnut hair was sleek and dark and my face was as white as unmarked paper.
Synonyms
smooth, glossy, shiny, shining, gleaming, lustrous, silken, silky, satiny, velvety, sheeny;
well brushed, polished, burnished
1.1(Of an animal) having smooth, glossy hair or fur: a sleek black cat...
- The wolf looked from the sleek cat to Ellison, whimpered again, then turned and ran past the jaguar, down the corridor and out of sight.
- Red coats on sleek horses are hugely outnumbered by the people who follow in their cars, or on foot.
- On the other side were three sleek horses, tall, with shining coats, chestnut, black, and a pinto, golden-blonde and black.
1.2(Of a person) having a wealthy and well-groomed appearance: a sleek and ambitious junior Minister...
- She's sleek, elegant, stylish and the epitome of New York City chic.
- Big mistake: his carved cut was only for small, sleek people - a certain model turned fashion editor, wore it to perfection.
- Elegant and sleek Doug Glanville patrols center field, and newly blossomed Mike Lieberthal is the catcher.
Synonyms
well groomed, stylish, wealthy-looking, prosperous-looking
1.3(Of an object) having an elegant, streamlined shape or design: his sleek black car slid through the traffic...
- Nowadays, the heart of the computer is more likely to be a sleek, futuristically designed container that is both easy on the eye and handy to move around as well.
- In one of her hands she still grasped a firearm-a smooth, sleek affair of deadly black metal.
- Then there was the film - a sleek glossy thriller, unlike any American film I knew, which to the innocent eye looked like a New Wave movie.
Synonyms
streamlined, trim, aerodynamic;
elegant, graceful, flowing, smooth
1.4Ingratiating; unctuous: she gave Guy a sleek smile to underline her words...
- His sleek and glossy facade is something for which he is regularly - and unfairly - criticised in the British press.
- And more, in that sleek smile, he sensed a derisory note rising out of Lubin's relationship to Morris' sister, Celia.
- I stood beneath the tinsel, understanding her now, her sleek smile, those dangerous eyes, her dares.
verb [with object and adverbial of direction]
Make (hair) smooth and glossy: her black hair was sleeked down...
- What they have succeeded in doing was a vague similarity to French hairstyles - combining a ponytail and artificially sleeked straight hair falling like a cascade on one side of the face.
- His blue-black hair was sleeked back from his face, his golden eyes reflecting the blazing sparks of the fire.
- So these subtle communications play a substantial role in the same way as mammals display fear by sleeking their hair over their head.
Derivatives
sleekly
/ adverb ...- In its place is a dashboard of sleekly industrial metallic finish, overlapping aluminium-ringed dials, soft-touch surfaces and rubber and felt-lined door pockets and cubbies.
- All have tasteful jewelry, sleekly nyloned legs, and the absolute obligation to sit still on stiff chairs.
- Another sign should be a triangle depicting a cartoon bomb with the fuse lit, or possibly a sleekly elegant bullet.
sleekness
/ noun ...- I think that this advice was not well intended and that the counter campaign itself was technically flawed, its major flaw being its American-style sleekness.
- I paused as I walked past, and admired the van's sleekness.
- He radiated a fastidious sleekness that can only irritate.
sleeky
- The less we understand them, the more they look like a shaky, flexible and sleeky snake that changes every time we try to touch it.
- That creates a very good, hydrodynamically sleeky surface over which a thin stable laminar flow film can form and the friction resistance of the under water surface will be significantly reduced.
- This model is the standard version of this harmonica and comes in a sleeky black case with reedplates of standard thickness.
Origin
Late Middle English: a later variant of slick (adjective and verb).
slick from Middle English:
Although it is not recorded until after the Norman Conquest, slick, originally meaning ‘glossy’ was probably in Old English as it is a Germanic word. The sense ‘plausible’ dates from the late 16th century; ‘skilful, adroit’ dates from the early 19th century. Sleek (Late Middle English) is a later variant of slick. Slight (Middle English) is related, for it originally meant ‘smooth’ although negative senses also exist in related languages. The sense ‘treat with disrespect’ is found from the late 16th century, from the earlier sense of ‘to level’. For sleekit