adv. (Old English: then American).—1. Quick; bold; direct; perfect. Whence (2) = clever; plausible; expert; SMART (q.v.). Also SLEEK.
1605. JONSON, CHAPMAN, &c., Eastware Hoe, ii. 1. They be the smoothest and SLICKEST knaves in a country.
c. 1852. HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), ed. Traits of American Humour, II. 13. Courtin’ is the hardest thing in the world to begin, though it goes on so SLICK arterwards.
1835. CROCKETT, Tour to the North and Down East, 120. The senate could not pass Mr. Stevenson through for England…. He was a-going through right SLICK, till he came to his coat pocketts, and they were so full of papers written by Ritchie … that he stuck fast.
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, I. 241.
| How the hare, making play, | |
| ‘Progress’d right SLICK away,’ | |
| As ‘them tarnation chaps’ the Americans say. |
1841. F. W. SHELTON, Peter Cram, in The Knickerbocker, xvii. Jan., 40. Singin’ is a science which comes pretty tough at first; but it goes SLICK afterwards.
1841. E. G. PAIGE (‘Dow, Jr.’), Short Patent Sermons [BARTLETT]. Nobody can waltz real SLICK, unless they have the spring-halt in one leg, as horses sometimes have.
1844. W. T. THOMPSON, Major Jones’s Courtship, 94. I done it, as SLICK as a whistle.
1847. Blackwood’s Magazine, lxii. July, 68. The [railroad] company, out of sheer parsimony, have neglected to fence in their line, which goes SLICK through the centre of your garden.
1869. H. B. STOWE, Oldtown Folks, xxi. He did [read] it off SLICKER than any on us could, he did,—there wa’n’t no kind o’ word could stop him.
1896. LILLARD, Poker Stories, 243. One of the SLICKEST young fellows that ever turned a card … could work the shells and the elusive pea like a circus sharper …
TO SLICK UP, verb. phr. (American).—To TITIVATE (q.v.); to smarten; to put in order.
1839. CAROLINE M. KIRKLAND, A New Home—Who’ll Follow? xxxiv. Mrs. Flyter was ‘SLICKED UP’ for the occasion, in the snuff-coloured silk she was married in.
1843. B. R. HALL (‘Robert Carlton’) The New Purchase, I., 72. The caps most in vogue then were made of dark, coarse, knotted twine, like a cabbage net—and were worn expressly as the wives themselves said—‘to save SLICKING UP every day, and to hide dirt!’
1834. SEBA SMITH (‘Major Downing’), Jack Downing’s Letters, ii. 43. The house was all SLICKED UP a day or two beforehand as neat as a pin, and the things in every room all sot to rights.
