What it means
If someone’s slippery as an eel, they’re dead hard to pin down and even harder to trust. Ask them a straight question and they’ll squirm off sideways, dodge the point, or magically vanish when blame, money, or doing their bit comes up. It’s a tidy little dig for someone shifty, evasive, and a bit suspect.
Usage examples
"Did Gaz ever pay you back for that kebab? Nah, he’s slippery as an eel, bangs on about the footy and suddenly he’s vanished."
"My landlord is slippery as an eel, every time I ask about the broken boiler he changes the subject."
"The candidate proved slippery as an eel during the debate, ducking every direct question for an hour."
"I asked Dean if he was covering his bit for the Airbnb and he went all slippery as an eel, started chatting about train prices and never answered."
"She’s slippery as an eel when the manager asks who signed off that mess, suddenly it’s all vagueness and blinking."
Where it comes from
This is a long-standing English simile that goes back centuries. It comes from the very literal fact that eels are slick and hard to hold, so the image clicked fast in everyday speech. Written examples turn up in early modern English, and it’s stuck because everybody gets that wriggle-and-gone feeling.
