UNCTUOUS • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Unctuous

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/ˈəŋtʃwəs/ Listen

adjective

Unctuous adj.

Of the nature or quality of an unguent or ointment; fatty; oily; greasy. "The unctuous cheese."

Having a smooth, greasy feel, as certain minerals.

Bland; suave; also, tender; fervid; as, an unctuous speech; sometimes, insincerely suave or fervid.

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Etymology of 'Unctuous'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Unctuous" Quotes from Famous Books

... constrained and punctilious in righteousness; it regards a married and industrious life as typically godly, and there is a sacredness to it, as of a vacant Sabbath, in the unoccupied higher spaces which such an existence leaves for the soul. It is sentimental, its ritual is meagre and unctuous, it expects no miracles, it thinks optimism akin to piety, and regards profitable enterprise and practical ambition as a sort of moral vocation. Its Evangelicalism lacks the notes, so prominent in the gospel, of disillusion, ...

— The Life of Reason • George Santayana

... time-clock. Una admitted to herself that she didn't see how it was possible to get so many employees together promptly without it, and she was duly edified by the fact that the big chiefs punched it, too.... But she noticed that after punching it promptly at nine, in an unctuous manner which said to all beholders, "You see that even I subject myself to this delightful humility," Mr. S. Herbert Ross frequently sneaked out and ...

— The Job - An American Novel • Sinclair Lewis

... to read those jolly unctuous authors when I was young, in the old 'sitting-room' at home! The great fire-place glows before me now; its light dances on the wall; my mother's hand is on my head; my sister's eyes are beaming on her lover over in the darker corner; there is a murmur ...

— Humorous Masterpieces from American Literature • Various

... as the Prince of Upstarts, grandiloquent and at the same time unctuous, a General in a Salvation Army of Art, or a monk who is a devotee of an esthetic Doctrine which has been drawn up by ...

— Youth and Egolatry • Pio Baroja

... you are," Miro barked. "One move and it will be your last." Gone was the smooth unctuous speech of former times. His ...

— Pirates of the Gorm • Nat Schachner

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