sly
/slaɪ/ adjective, adverb, proper noun
Forms slier slyer sliest slyest sligh
- adjective Artfully cunning; secretly mischievous; wily.
- adjective (having a positive connotation) Dexterous in performing an action, so as to escape notice
- adjective Done with, and marked by, artful and dexterous secrecy; subtle “a sly trick”
- adjective Light or delicate; slight; thin.
- adverb Slyly.
- proper noun A diminutive of the male given name Sylvester.
- proper noun A surname
Synonyms
nimble skillful cautious shrewd artful crafty cunning knowing sharp shifty slim sly as a fox wily dodgy foxy guileful knavish slick tricksy tricky
Etymology
From Middle English sly, sley, sleigh, sleiȝ, from Old Norse slǿgr (“sly, cunning”, literally “capable of hitting or striking”), from Proto-Germanic *slōgiz (“lively, agile, cunning, sly, striking”), from Proto-Indo-European *slak- (“to hit, throw”).
Cognate with Icelandic slægur (“crafty, sly”), Norwegian Nynorsk sløg (“sly”). Related to sleight, slay. In all likelihood, however, unrelated with Saterland Frisian slau (“sly, crafty”), Dutch sluw (“sly, cunning”), Low German slu (“sly, cunning”), German schlau (“clever, crafty”). Doublet of sleight and slöjd
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Dexterous in performing an action, so as to escape notice; nimble; skillful; cautious; shrewd; knowing; --in a good sense.
- adjective Artfully cunning; secretly mischievous; wily.
- adverb Slyly. [Obs. or Poetic] Spenser.
Etymology [OE. sli, slegh, sleih, Icel sl, for sl; akin to Sw. slug, Dan. slu, LG. slou, G. schlau; probably to E. slay, v.t.; cf. G. verschlagen sly. See Slay, v. t., and cf. Sleight.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “sly”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details