But pain and fear are slippery things to define, Ken.

The Kanthurans themselves weren't all that sure what to make of this slippery thing called independence.

The answer: Truth on the Internet is a slippery thing.

From here, words seemed to be flat and slippery things, like flounder.

But responsibilities are slippery things, depending on who's talking about them.

How did the slippery thing let himself be taken alive by a human?

Not a thing, she told herself, but many slippery different things that had no definition.

It's a bad and slippery thing that you have almost introduced.

I reached out and touched it, a tiny, slippery thing.

And we take it for granted that in repressive governments words are slippery things.