sly

Meanings

Adjective

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

Adverb

• Slyly.

Related

Similar words

• artful
• cunning
• knowing
• sharp
• crafty
• shrewd
• shifty
• sly as a fox
• slim
• wily

Origin

• From Middle English sly, sley, sleigh, sleiȝ, from Old Norse slægr, slœgr, from Proto-Germanic *slōgiz, from Proto-Indo-European *slak-. 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").