Wily
['waɪlɪ] or ['waɪli]
Definition
(superl.) Full of wiles, tricks, or stratagems; using craft or stratagem to accomplish a purpose; mischievously artful; subtle.
Editor: Michel
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. Insidious, artful, cunning, sly, crafty, subtle, arch, designing, deceitful, treacherous, trickish, TRICKY, intriguing, politic, foxy, snaky, crooked, diplomatic, Machiavelian.
Edited by Beverly
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Artful, crafty, cunning, subtle, sly,[See ARTFUL]
Edited by Charlene
Definition
adj. full of wiles or tricks: using craft or stratagem: artful: sly.—adv. Wī′lily.—n. Wī′liness cunning.
Typed by Judy
Examples
- It is a dark and intricate story of treacheries, cruelties, and hate, in which the death of the wily Histi?us shines almost cheerfully. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- In short, the wily old Jew had the boy in his toils. Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist.
- Pablo is very wily. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- I am a wily Italian and a suspicious Italian. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- We Italians are all wily and suspicious by nature, in the estimation of the good John Bull. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- Crispin, pitying the terror of Caliphronas, in spite of his dislike for the wily Greek, took him below and gave him some brandy. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- I see a preternatural lure in its wily glance. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Why, good Sir Maurice, rejoined the wily politician, start not aside like a scared steed, without, at least, considering the object of your terror. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- But he was too wily for that. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
- Ay, but thou forgettest, said the wily adviser, thou wilt have neither leisure nor opportunity to execute this mad project. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
Typed by Geraldine