greasy

C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities

US /ˈɡrisi/ UK /ˈɡriːsi/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

adj
covered with or resembling grease; slippery

He wiped his greasy hands on a rag after the repair.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · covered with or resembling... oily fatty slippery slick unctuous slimy

Opposites

dry clean

Word family

Derived forms greasilygreasiness

Related forms grease

Etymology

From grease + -y. Grease is from Old French graisse ('fat'), from Vulgar Latin *crassia, from Latin crassus ('thick, fat, dense').

crassus Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# greasy

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /ˈɡrisi/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈɡriːsi/

## Meanings
1. covered with or resembling grease; slippery

## Examples
- He wiped his greasy hands on a rag after the repair.

## Synonyms
- oily
- fatty
- slippery
- slick
- unctuous
- slimy

## Antonyms
- dry
- clean

## Derived Forms
- greasily
- greasiness

## Related Forms
- grease

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: crassus

## Etymology
From grease + -y. Grease is from Old French graisse ('fat'), from Vulgar Latin *crassia, from Latin crassus ('thick, fat, dense').

## AI Etymology
Greasy comes from grease + -y. Grease is from Old French graisse ('fat'), from Vulgar Latin *crassia, from Latin crassus ('thick, fat, dense'). Morphologically, the account is both compositional and suffixal: -y marks the visible structure by which the older base becomes the modern form. In present use, it is used as an adjective meaning "covered with or resembling grease; slippery", so the historical material remains connected with the current sense rather than standing as bare ancestry. The wider English family includes derivatives such as greasily and greasiness and related forms such as grease, showing how the same historical material continues to organize neighboring vocabulary. The named historical forms include Latin crassus, keeping the history tied to concrete forms rather than a loose resemblance. Its semantic neighborhood is marked by oily, fatty, slippery, and slick on one side and contrasts such as dry and clean on the other, locating the modern specialization without adding a new origin story.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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