Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Departure from a regular course; wandering.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The characteristic of being devious; sneakiness; underhandedness.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the quality of being oblique and rambling indirectly
  • noun the quality of being deceitful and underhanded

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Any one with a ounce of political deviousness is going to capitalize on those feelings by making the same statements as Mahoney.

    Ex-RNC member knocks Republicans in launching House bid 2010

  • Just one of the many testaments to their nigh unconquerable deviousness is the endless variety of “squirrel-proof bird feeders” (probably the biggest oxymoron in the English language — right up there with a “Light Twinkie” and, if you really think about it, “Sustainable Development”).

    The Devil Wears…Gray Fur! 2008

  • Parliamentary report finds Government minister's use FOI laws for 'deviousness' NEARLY half of

    NEWS.com.au | Top Stories 2010

  • Nor was her undeserved reputation for meanness and deviousness insurmountable.

    O: A Presidential Novel Anonymous 2011

  • We don't mess around with mind games, we use knives. — The Good Wife's Eli Gold sparring with his competitor Stacie Hall, whose deviousness gets sexual in their latest round. ...

    Matt's TV Week in Review: Stunts on Grey's and Glee, and More 2012

  • Nor was her undeserved reputation for meanness and deviousness insurmountable.

    O: A Presidential Novel Anonymous 2011

  • Murphy proved naively blind to the political deviousness of French reactionaries, such as Lemaigre-Dubreuil.

    Wild Bill Donovan Douglas Waller 2011

  • Murphy proved naively blind to the political deviousness of French reactionaries, such as Lemaigre-Dubreuil.

    Wild Bill Donovan Douglas Waller 2011

  • Nor was her undeserved reputation for meanness and deviousness insurmountable.

    O: A Presidential Novel Anonymous 2011

  • The depths of human deviousness was a hard thing for a machine to fathom.

    Art & Me Harris Tobias 2011

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