Slike
verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 To crawl; creep; slide. intransitive
- 2 To make sleek or smooth. transitive
- 3 To rend asunder; cleave. UK, dialectal, transitive
Etymology
From Middle English sliken, from Old English *slīcan (“to crawl, slink”), from Proto-West Germanic *slīkan, from Proto-Germanic *slīkaną (“to creep, crawl”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleyg-, *sleyǵ- (“to glide, smooth, spread”). Cognate with German Low German slieken (“to slink, crawl”), German schleichen (“to creep, crawl, slink, sneak”), Old English slīcian (“to make sleek, slick, smooth, or glossy”).
From Middle English sliken, slikien, from Old English slīcian (“to make sleek, slick, smooth, or glossy”). See above.
From Middle English *slīken, from Old English slīcan (“to strike”), from Proto-West Germanic *slīkan, from Proto-Germanic *slīkaną (“to hew, hammer, strike”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleyg-, *sleyǵ- (“to beat”). Cognate with Old Frisian slēc (“a shock, blow”), Middle Low German slîken (“to beat”), Old English sliċċ, sliċ (“beater, hammer, mallet”), Latin ligō, ligōnis (“hoe, mattock”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.