lubricity

English

Etymology

From French lubricité or its source, Latin lūbricitās.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /luːˈbɹɪsɪti/

• Audio (US):

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Noun

lubricity (countable and uncountable, plural lubricities)

2. (of a fluid) Degree of ability to lubricate.

   Hyponym: superlubricity

   Coordinate term: viscosity

   Near-synonyms: slipperiness, slickness, oiliness

   • 1983, Robert Drewe, The Bodysurfers, Penguin, published 2009, page 42:

     Though her lubricity made it redundant, Anthea passed him the oil to caress her thighs.

4. (of a person) Evasiveness; shiftiness.

   Near-synonyms: slipperiness, slickness, oiliness

6. (of a person) Lasciviousness; propensity to lewdness.

   Synonyms: lechery, wantonness

   • 1820, Charles Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer:

     all the outrageous lubricities of Phallic worship (III, xvi)

   • 1906, Hilaire Belloc, , introduction to Essays in Literature and History by James Anthony Froude

     In one epoch lubricity, in another fanaticism, in a third dulness and a dead-alive copying of the past, are the faults which criticism finds to attack.

   • 1941, George Ryley Scott, Phallic Worship: A History of Sex and Sex Rites in Relation to the Religions of All Races from Antiquity to the Present Day, London: T. Werner Laurie, page 29:

     Apart from the bull and the serpent, which were so universally worshipped as to call for consideration in other sections of this work, the goat ranked as one of the most popular, this animal's excessive lubricity marking it as an especially suitable representative of any generative or reproductive deity.

   • 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 62:

     Among the large number of characters are [...] young boys and old knowledgeable beldames familiar with every lubricity, every love charm and potion.

Derived terms

• superlubricity

Related terms

• lube, lubed, lubed up
• lubricate, lubricated
• lubrication
• lubricator