oiled

1. 1
   adjective

   Covered in oil, or supplied with oil to lubricate or protect a surface.

   Each oiled bearing turned smoothly inside the housing.

   The carpenter rubbed the oiled wood until it shone.

   Similaroily

   Oppositeunoiled

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of oil.

   The groundskeeper oiled every gate hinge along the path.

   After years of neglect, the lock had been oiled and finally turned freely.

   Note

   A regular form: oil simply adds -ed, and one spelling covers both the past (she oiled the hinge) and the participle after have or be (the hinge has been oiled). Because most senses of oil take an object, passives come naturally: pans are oiled for cooking, engines oiled to run. Placed before a noun, as in an oiled hinge, the word has crossed into the adjective for coated surfaces.

3. 3
   adjectiveslang

   Drunk, typically used in the phrase well-oiled.

   Uncle Pete arrived already well oiled and eager to tell his stories.

   They were thoroughly oiled by the time the speeches began.

   Similarbesotted, blasted, bombed, blitzed, befuddled

   Oppositesober

   Note

   Slang that treats a drinker like a well-run machine. The same joke drives lubricated and lubed. Well is the usual partner (he got well oiled), but it is not required. James T. Farrell's The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan (1934) asks simply whether a man "was oiled," and Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye (1951) has "pretty oiled up." Keep it to casual talk, where it sounds jokey rather than clinical.

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