sly

adjectiveadverbcommon in dialogue

//slaɪ//

Artfully cunning; secretly mischievous; wily.

adjective

1
Artfully cunning; secretly mischievous; wily.
2
Dexterous in performing an action, so as to escape notice
3
Done with, and marked by, artful and dexterous secrecy; subtle
a sly trick
4
Light or delicate; slight; thin.

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

adverb

1
Slyly.

Forms

comparative: slier, slyer
superlative: sliest, slyest

slurping · A sound or motion that slurps.slut · A sexually promiscuous woman.slutty · Of, resembling, or suitable for, a slut.

sly · Artfully cunning; secretly mischievous; wily.

Sly · A diminutive of the male given name Sylvester.smack · A distinct flavor, especially if slight.Smack · A surname from German.

The neighbouring pages — Alphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.