A slippery slope is a small step after which things start sliding downhill and become hard to stop. You skip a check once, then twice, and soon carelessness is normal. Slope means a hillside, so the image is stronger than just slippery ground: you're slipping downwards. It often comes with on: we're on a slippery slope.
When would you say a slippery slope?
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be on a slippery slope; a slippery slope towards/to something; the start of a slippery slope
- Skipping the checks once could put us on a slippery slope towards careless work.
- For him, borrowing small amounts without a repayment plan was the start of a slippery slope.
- The editor warned that changing quotations for convenience was a slippery slope.
What changed
First versionWe are on a slippery road if we keep ignoring the smaller errors.
RevisionWe are on a slippery slope if we keep ignoring the smaller errors.
A slippery road or path is a common image in many languages, so slippery road feels right. But the English idiom is about a hillside: a slippery slope. Replacing road with slope makes the expression recognisable.
A setback is a single failure you can recover from. A slippery slope is the start of a chain where each step pulls in the next. In essays, a slippery slope argument says if we allow this, worse will follow; to make it convincing, show exactly how one step leads to the next.
Your turn
Complete the warning idiom: We could be on a slippery ___ if temporary exceptions become routine.
Show the answer
slope — The idiom is a slippery slope, a slippery hillside. Road is a literal translation of a similar image, but English doesn't use it here.
Describe a small exception that could grow into a harmful habit.
Letting one missed inspection go unrecorded could be a slippery slope towards accepting incomplete safety logs.
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