Idioms

well-oiled

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well oiled

1. Operating very smoothly or efficiently. Sometimes hyphenated (and always before a noun). Their whole campaign has been well-oiled from the very beginning. The company has become a well-oiled machine under her direction.
2. Drunk. Sometimes hyphenated (and always before a noun). We spent the evening getting well oiled on local liqueurs. Several well-oiled patrons stumbled out of the bar, itching for a fight.
See also: oiled, well
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

well-oiled

1. mod. alcohol intoxicated. He was well-oiled and couldn’t stand up.
2. mod. talkative. She was sure well-oiled. I thought she’d never stop talking.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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References in periodicals archive
Now it's a case of everyone acknowledging exactly what they are, which is a proper well-oiled machine," he said.
"We definitely didn't play football like they do now - Town now are a well-oiled machine and knock it around really well.
There is so much to say about all that is wrong with using mechanical terminology like "well-oiled machines" when talking about todays organizations that I am not even going to go there.
"This is to be expected given that GCSEs and A-levels are delivered by a well-oiled machine, where issues are relatively few and far between.
"Even economies in the well-oiled categories, such as the UAE, should not rest on their laurels," Riedl said.
"And behind the scenes, a well-oiled machine is the phrase that they all use I think, and that's what it is."
Taking the prize for biggest prat of the festival weekend, a well-oiled Marc stood in the front row with Cerys' daughter Glenys on his shoulders.
Some of the show-stopper numbers like The Sun In The Morning and You Can't Get A Man With A Gun make you sit up and take notice - but in general this is a show that runs like a well-oiled machine without actually offering the tingle that would lift it up a notch.
With well-oiled aplomb, Jodidio traces Calatrava's trajectory from the genuinely iconoclastic Stadelhofen Station to the monumental bombast of recent years.
Even when a friend helped her to find the way out, the well-oiled singer made sure her nails were well out of the way - maybe the paint hadn't dried.
poetry nor is it meant to be but given his meals are well-oiled his
WIDOWER Frank Beardsley (Dennis Quaid) is an admiral in the United States Coast Guard who runs his family of eight kids like a well-oiled machine.
When two independent Blaenau Gwent candidates can destroy a well-oiled political machine with its readily available resources and rolling in its many heavyweights to support the cause then, truly, democracy is the winner.
It's taken rather a few too many mistakes by the current administration to dislodge the perception that they're a "well-oiled machine," just as it will likely require some time to dispel the notion that the Democratic Party has no ideas.
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