1593. Marlowe, Lusts' Dominion [Dodsley, Old Plays (1876), xiv. 149.] As I hope for mercy, I am half persuaded that this slip-halter has pawned my clothes.
1594. Lyly, Mother Bombie, ii. 1. Thow art a slipstring I'le warrant.
1611. Cotgrave, Dict. s.v. Young rascals or scoundrels, rakehells, or slip-*strings.
1619. Fletcher, A King and No King, ii. Well, slip-string, I shall meet with you.
1621. Granger, Eccles, 273. Thus it is in the house of prodigals, drinking slipthrifts, and Belials.
d.1637. Dekker, Londons Tempe. We are making arrowes for my slip-string sonne.
Slippery, subs. (thieves').—Soap:
Fr. glissant.
Adj. and adv. (old colloquial: now recognised).—Untrustworthy; false; wanton. Also slipper, slippy, and slip-skin. Whence slippery-fellow (or -trick) = 'deceitful' (B. E.): 'one on whom there can be no dependance' (Grose).
1553. J. Brende, Tr. Quintus Curtius, vii. Fortune . . . is slipper, and cannot bee kept against her will.
[?]. Political Poems [E. E. T. S.], 60. He . . . of his herte . . . hath sliper holde.
[?]. Taverner, Adag., C.1. Let this example teach menne not to truste on the slippernesse of fortune.
[?]. Parad. of Dainty Devices, E.3. Slipper joy of certain pleasure here.
1579. Spenser, Shepheard's Kal., Nov. 153. And slipper hope Of mortal men that swinck and sweate for nought. Ibid., Sep. Long time he used this slippery prank.
1580. Lyly, Euphues [Oliphant, New Eng., i. 606. Adjectives are employed in new senses as a slippery pranke, a broad jest. . . .].
d.15[?]. Puttenham, Works, i. 4. Because it is more currant and slipper upon the tongue, and withal tunable and melodious.
1602. Shakspeare, Othello, ii. 1, 246. A slipper and subtle knave. Ibid. (1604), Winter's Tale, i. 2. My wife is slippery. Ibid. (1610), Coriol., iv. 4. O world, thy slippery turns.
d.1607. Barnes, Works, 283. I know they bee slipper that I have to do wyth, and there is no holde of them.
1619. Fletcher, King and No King, ii. 1. Servants are slippery: but I dare give my word for her and her honesty [chastity].
1641-2. Milton, Animad. Rem. Defence. A pretty slip-skin conveyance to sift mass into no mass. Ibid. (1641), Prel. Epis. Some bad and slippery men in that councell.
2. (common).—Quick.
1902. Kernahan, Scoundrels, vii. We must look slippy about it . . . It's lucky I haven't far to go.
Slip-shod, adj. (colloquial).—Careless;
slovenly. [That is
'slipper-shod.'] Also slip-along,
slip-slop.
1605. Shakspeare, Lear, i. 5. Thy wit shall ne'er go slipshod.
1818. Scott, Heart of Midlothian, i. A sort of appendix to the half bound, and slip-shod volumes of the circulating library.
1849. Maitland, Reformation, 559. It would be less worth while to read Fox's slip-along stories.
1885. D. Tel., 29 Aug. Stilted phraseology is preferable to slip-shod.
Slip-slop, subs. phr. (colloquial).—1.
A blunder. As adj. = slovenly,
inaccurate: cf. slipshod.
1797. D'Arblay, Diary, iv. 14. He told us a great number of comic slip-slops of the first Lord Baltimore, who made a constant misuse of one word for another.
1849. Kingsley, Alton Locke, xxxviii. His . . . slip-slop trick of using the word natural to mean, in one sentence, 'material,' and in the next, as I use it, only 'normal and orderly.'
2. (common).—In pl. = Shoes (or slippers) down at the heels: also (Norfolk) slip-shoe.
