Meaning of well-oiled | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Well-run; smoothrunning; efficiently run.
   idiomatic
2. Drunk.
   idiomatic
3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see well, oiled.

Equivalents

Examples

“Pro-Trump political influencers have spent years building a well-oiled media machine that swarms around every major news story, creating a torrent of viral commentary that reliably drowns out both the mainstream media and the liberal opposition.”

“Well, in 2000, a pair of well-oiled strangers hit the news and were arrested – after groping each other and undressing on a transatlantic flight – but it’s usually less extreme, as with the couple who were intensely snogging in 2020.”

“Swinging onto the Treherbert branch under the new OLE, the train's onboard Passenger Information Screens announce we have entered a 'no alcohol' zone. That doesn't seem to help, as some of the passengers who joined us earlier seem 'well oiled' already.”

CEFR level