Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Working or spreading harmfully in a subtle or stealthy manner.
- adjective Intended to entrap; treacherous.
- adjective Beguiling but harmful; alluring.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Lying in wait; hence, deceitful; sly; treacherous.
- Designed or adapted to entrap; deceptive; insnaring: as, insidious arts.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Lying in wait; watching an opportunity to insnare or entrap; deceitful; sly; treacherous; -- said of persons.
- adjective Intended to entrap; characterized by treachery and deceit.
- adjective Acting or proceeding unobserved or in a seemingly harmless manner, but slowly or eventually doing great damage.
- adjective (Med.) a disease existing, without marked symptoms, but ready to become active upon some slight occasion; a disease not appearing to be as bad as it really is.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Producing
harm in astealthy , oftengradual , manner. - adjective Intending to
entrap ;alluring butharmful . - adjective nonstandard
Treacherous .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective beguiling but harmful
- adjective intended to entrap
- adjective working or spreading in a hidden and usually injurious way
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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I mean, you've got Darth Sidious (as in "insidious," I assume) and then the even-more-obviously named Darths Maul and Tyrannus.
The Tao Of Sith 2005
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But I fear the most insidious is because people think that changing their lightbulbs and sorting their recyclables counts as “doing your bit”.
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The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.
The Volokh Conspiracy » Ninth Circuit Denies Rehearing in Al-Kidd v. Ashcroft 2010
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But I fear the most insidious is because people think that changing their lightbulbs and sorting their recyclables counts as “doing your bit”.
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In my opinion, one of the more insidious is the hijacked account scam.
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Far more insidious is Lieberman, with his coprophagic grin and his profession of good will.
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What makes Huffington Post more insidious is the way they can buy of dissent readily by giving an organization their own blog.
On Gaza: Huffington Post Takes Cues From Fox News « Antiwar.com Blog 2008
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The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.
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The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.
Archive 2007-09-30 2007
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The latest strategy is now seen dropping unsupported accusations across the media spectrum to the effect that the intelligence agency's assignment of Ambassador Joseph Wilson to look into the now-discredited Iraq/Niger/uranium claims were all part of a long-term insidious scheme to try and discredit the Bush Administration.
1290622633 commented on the word insidious
Men are so insidious!! Women, can I get an Amen!!
March 14, 2010
jwjarvis commented on the word insidious
Our research has shown that multitasking can have an insidious effect on learning.
June 9, 2010
mohitanand commented on the word insidious
working in a subtle but destructive way
Plaque is insidious: we cannot see it, but each day it eats away at our enamel, causing cavities and other dental problems.
October 19, 2016