Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Full of wiles; cunning.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Full of wiles; subtle; cunning; crafty; sly.
- Synonyms Cunning, Artful, Sly, etc. (see
cunning ), designing, deceitful, foxy, diplomatic, delusive, insidious.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Full of wiles, tricks, or stratagems; using craft or stratagem to accomplish a purpose; mischievously artful; subtle.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
sly ,cunning ,full oftricks
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective marked by skill in deception
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word wily.
Examples
-
The president is known as a wily politician with a long history of outsmarting political opponents.
Yemen Protesters Accept Deal Hakim Almasmari 2011
-
On the field, Sócrates was known as a wily strategist who could elegantly employ his signature move, a back-heel pass.
NYT > Home Page By SIMON ROMERO 2011
-
On the field, Sócrates was known as a wily strategist who could elegantly employ his signature move, a back-heel pass.
NYT > Home Page By SIMON ROMERO 2011
-
On the field, Sócrates was known as a wily strategist who could elegantly employ his signature move, a back-heel pass.
NYT > Home Page By SIMON ROMERO 2011
-
Perhaps it was his looks - it seemed impossible for any profile of him not to describe him as "wily" - but he projected a sense of profound wisdom, and he was a skilled enough magic man to coax six goals out of Milan Baros in Euro 2004.
-
I think he is the most stunning example of this because it's one thing to look at Jesse Helms being called a wily pandering bigot while Teddy Kennedy is described as a man of principal.
-
Mr. Musharraf is known as a wily fox here in India, and his speech shows exactly why that is.
-
Mark, aristocratic-looking belying a poverty-stricken upbringing and handsome, but known as wily and aloof in his circle, played an expert cat-and-mouse game, not only with Judy—his girlfriend and my patient—but also with his wife.
Living with the Passive—Aggressive Man Ph.D. Scott Wetzler 1992
-
Mark, aristocratic-looking belying a poverty-stricken upbringing and handsome, but known as wily and aloof in his circle, played an expert cat-and-mouse game, not only with Judy—his girlfriend and my patient—but also with his wife.
Living with the Passive—Aggressive Man Ph.D. Scott Wetzler 1992
-
It was one-way traffic as Judah, known as a wily and tricky operator, continued to be outboxed and he was now bleeding from the nose.
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph 2011
sweetzingiber commented on the word wily
clever; deceptive
August 1, 2009