Oily

//ˈɔɪli// adj, noun, slang

adj, noun, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A marble with an oily lustre.

    "Lustered (also called lusters, rainbows, oilies, and pearls)."

  2. 2
    Oilskins. (waterproof garment) in-plural, informal
Adjective
  1. 1
    Covered with or containing oil.

    "oily machinery;   oily rags;   oily fish;   oily cooking"

  2. 2
    Resembling oil.

    "oily swells;   oily seas"

  3. 3
    Excessively friendly or polite but insincere. figuratively

    "Near-synonyms: slick, buttery; smarmy"

Adjective
  1. 1
    smeared or soiled with grease or oil wordnet
  2. 2
    containing an unusual amount of grease or oil wordnet
  3. 3
    coated or covered with oil wordnet
  4. 4
    unpleasantly and excessively suave or ingratiating in manner or speech wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
greasyoleaginousunctuous;adiposeadulatory

Example

More examples

"My clothes have an oily smell because I ate at an okonomiyaki place."

Etymology

From Middle English oylei, equivalent to oil + -y. Compare German ölig (“oily”), Swedish oljig (“oily”).

Related phrases

oily bitterlingoily ragoily riceoily-wadsmell of an oily rag

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.