unctuous

Borrowed from Medieval Latin unctuōsus (“oily”), from Latin unctum, from unguere, ungere (“to anoint”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈʌnkt͡ʃuəs/, /ʌnktjuəs/

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• Hyphenation: unc‧tu‧ous

unctuous (comparative more unctuous, superlative most unctuous)

1. (of a liquid or substance) Oily or greasy.
   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 96, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, OCLC 57395299:

     In a word, after being tried out, the crisp, shrivelled blubber, now called scraps or fritters, still contains considerable of its unctuous properties.

2. (of a wine, coffee, sauce, gravy etc.) Rich, lush, intense, with layers of concentrated, soft, velvety flavor.
   • 1872, Bayard Taylor, chapter 3, in Beauty and The Beast; and Tales of Home:

     The halls and passages of the castle were already permeated with rich and unctuous smells, and a delicate nose might have picked out and arranged, by their finer or coarser vapors, the dishes preparing for the upper and lower tables.

3. (by extension, of a person) Profusely polite, especially unpleasantly so and insincerely earnest.
   • 1857, Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers. […], volume II, copyright edition, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, published 1859, OCLC 490927853, page 23:

     Then he thoroughly disliked the tone of Mr. Slope's letter; it was unctuous, false, and unwholesome, like the man.

   • 1919, Stephen Leacock, chapter 8, in The Hohenzollerns in America:

     In superior circles, however, introduction becomes more elaborate, more flattering, more unctuous.

   • 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “Doc Daneeka”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, OCLC 1023879857, page 32:

     General Peckem roused himself after a moment with an unctuous and benignant smile.

• (of a liquid): oleaginous, saponaceous, slimy; see also Thesaurus:unctuous
• (of wine, coffee, sauce, gravy etc.): savorous
• (profusely, especially unpleasantly, polite): creepy, effusive, groveling, oleaginous, slimy, sycophantic; see also Thesaurus:sycophantic

• unctuous in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• unctuous in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
• unctuous at OneLook Dictionary Search