MEANING
A course of events in which an initial step is thought likely to lead to increasingly harmful consequences.
Use it for
describing a feared chain of worsening outcomes; questioning where a small concession may lead; analyzing claims that one change will encourage more damaging changes; distinguishing a predicted progression from an established causal chainDescribes a feared progression toward worsening consequences while leaving the causal claim open to examination. Writing functions: Worsening progression.
Words that belong together
- a slippery slope toward something
- put someone on a slippery slope
On the page
The committee feared that routine exceptions would create a slippery slope toward abandoning the rule.
Calling the proposal a slippery slope does not establish that the predicted sequence will occur.
Word forms
- Base
- slippery slope
Usage notes
Idiomatic noun phrase, often a slippery slope or on a slippery slope. Plural slippery slopes is possible for distinct feared progressions. Register: neutral. Commonness: common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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