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SLIPPING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Moving as on a slippery surface
Example:
his slipping and slithering progress over the ice
Synonyms:
slipping; slithering
Classified under:
Similar:
slippery; slippy (causing or tending to cause things to slip or slide)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb slip
Context examples:
The pull makes a glacier both slide on its base and deform, or "creep" - a slow movement caused by ice crystals slipping past one another under the pressure of the glacier's weight.
(NASA Finds Asian Glaciers Slowed by Ice Loss, NASA)
The crackling turned into a snapping, the sled pivoting and the runners slipping and grating several inches to the side.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
This foraging partnership was recorded in print as early as 1588, when a Portuguese missionary in what is now Mozambique observed a small brown bird slipping into his church to nibble his wax candles.
(How humans and wild Honeyguide birds call each other to help, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
Half in my dreams I was dimly conscious that something was going on in the room, and gradually became aware that my wife had dressed herself and was slipping on her mantle and her bonnet.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I could hear people tumbling up from the cabin and the forecastle, and slipping in an instant outside my barrel, I dived behind the fore-sail, made a double towards the stern, and came out upon the open deck in time to join Hunter and Dr. Livesey in the rush for the weather bow.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
It was my good fortune, that no ill accident happened in these entertainments; only once a fiery horse, that belonged to one of the captains, pawing with his hoof, struck a hole in my handkerchief, and his foot slipping, he overthrew his rider and himself; but I immediately relieved them both, and covering the hole with one hand, I set down the troop with the other, in the same manner as I took them up.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I may add that I walked out to the athletic grounds this morning, saw that tenacious black clay is used in the jumping-pit and carried away a specimen of it, together with some of the fine tan or sawdust which is strewn over it to prevent the athlete from slipping.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“Cast it off,” I answered, slipping a turn of the rope.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
He felt that his eye was glazing, his senses slipping from him, his grasp upon the reins relaxing.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, after following Holmes’ example and slipping off my shoes, I found myself inside the bedroom.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
