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adjective

Sly adj. (compar. slyer or slier; superl. slyest or sliest)

Dexterous in performing an action, so as to escape notice; nimble; skillful; cautious; shrewd; knowing; in a good sense. "Be ye sly as serpents, and simple as doves." "Whom graver age And long experience hath made wise and sly."

Artfully cunning; secretly mischievous; wily. "For my sly wiles and subtle craftiness, The litle of the kingdom I possess."

Done with, and marked by, artful and dexterous secrecy; subtle; as, a sly trick. "Envy works in a sly and imperceptible manner."

Light or delicate; slight; thin. (Obs.)

By the sly, or On the sly, in a sly or secret manner. (Colloq.) "Gazed on Hetty's charms by the sly."

Sly goose (Zool.), the common sheldrake; so named from its craftiness.

Synonyms: Cunning; crafty; subtile; wily. See Cunning.

adverb

Sly adv. Slyly. (Obs. or Poetic)

See images of 'Sly'

Etymology of 'Sly'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Sly" Quotes from Famous Books

... havin' our Celia go so much with Sallie Morton—though her mother does say that Sallie puts crazy notions into our Celia's head. But I reckon all gals is kinder crazy, ain't they?" pursued the farmer, with one of his sly ...

— Nan Sherwood's Winter Holidays • Annie Roe Carr

... came up with them near a large log lying upon the ground, and felt much surprised to find them taking a circuit of a few rods without an object, every trace of the game seeming to have been lost, while they kept still yelping. On looking about him, he discovered sly Reynard stretched upon the log, apparently lifeless. The master made several efforts to direct the attention of his dogs towards the fox but failed; at length he approached so near the artful object of his pursuit as to see him breathe. Even then no alarm was exhibited; and the gentleman ...

— A Hundred Anecdotes of Animals • Percy J. Billinghurst

... seat on the stove-couch, and quietly, in the course of their conversation on one thing and another, she managed to ascertain her age, her native village and other such particulars, and then setting her mind diligently to put, on the sly, her conversation and mental capacity to the test, she discovered how deeply worthy she was to be respected and loved. But in a while Pao-y arrived, and Pao-ch'ai at once quitted ...

— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin

... contending passions.' It should never be forgotten that Lamb's vocation was his life. Literature was but his byplay, his avocation in the true sense of that much-abused word. He was not a fisherman, but an angler in the lake of letters; an author by chance and on the sly. He had a right to disport himself on paper, to play the frolic with his own fancies, to give the decalogue the slip, whose life was made up of the sternest stuff, of self-sacrifice, ...

— Obiter Dicta - Second Series • Augustine Birrell

... were satisfied when Jeff Bucknor told them he would run for the office of county attorney if they so wished it. At the same time he broke to them the news of his engagement. The veterans exchanged sly glances and laughed delightedly. Little did the young man dream that they had planned this political coup for the sole purpose of bringing to the county the person they considered the most suitable as a ...

— The Comings of Cousin Ann • Emma Speed Sampson

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