noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Fine, harmful, and (when wet) slimy pulverized rock, a waste product (pollution) produced by hydraulic mining and quartz milling, which can silt up rivers and accumulate on soil downstream of such activities.

   "For quotations using this term, see Citations:slickens."

Verb

1. 1
   third-person singular simple present indicative of slicken form-of, indicative, present, singular, third-person

Example

More examples

"For quotations using this term, see Citations:slickens."

Etymology

Ultimately a reference to the slimy, slick nature of the material. Compare slicken (“smooth”, adjective), slick (noun).

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