Meaning
Impossible to pin down or hold to account: describing someone evasive, devious or adept at wriggling out of commitments, questions or blame. It suggests smooth, practiced elusiveness rather than open dishonesty, and it is normally critical; politicians, salespeople and anyone who will not give a straight answer are typical targets. Informal to neutral in register; a strong criticism of someone's honesty or reliability. Regional use: General English.
Origin
Old by idiom standards: the American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, as republished by Dictionary.com, records the simile from about 1412, which is Middle English but just after Chaucer's death in 1400, so attributing it to Chaucer himself would be wrong. The comparison rests on the eel's slime-covered skin and powerful writhing, which let it slide out of a grasping hand; an Oxford University Press blog note observes that nothing deeper is needed to account for it. Parallel similes in other European languages, such as the Dutch 'zo glad als een aal', suggest the image arose naturally wherever eels were handled. Regional variants such as 'slippy as an eel' appear in nineteenth-century dialect and fiction, including Hardy.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- as slippery as an eel
- slippy as an eel
Usage Examples
- Try asking the landlord about that clause again; he is as slippery as an eel on the phone.
- The junior partner proved slippery as an eel once the auditors pressed him for the missing records.
- By the third interview the candidate seemed as slippery as an eel, dodging every question about the gap in her CV.