sly

See also: Sly

English

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for sly in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

Alternative forms

• sligh (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English sly, sley, from Old Norse slǣgr, slœgr (“sly, cunning”, literally “capable of hitting or striking”), from Proto-Germanic *slōgiz (“lively, agile, cunning, sly, striking”), from Proto-Indo-European *slak- (“to hit, throw”). Cognate with Icelandic slægur (“crafty, sly”), Norwegian Nynorsk sløg (“sly”), Saterland Frisian slau (“sly, crafty”), Dutch sluw (“sly, cunning”), Low German slu (“sly, cunning”), German schlau (“clever, crafty”). Related to sleight, slay.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /slaɪ/
• Rhymes: -aɪ

Adjective

sly (comparative slier or slyer, superlative sliest or slyest)

1. Artfully cunning; secretly mischievous; wily.
2. (having a positive sense) Dexterous in performing an action, so as to escape notice; nimble; skillful; cautious; shrewd; knowing
3. Done with, and marked by, artful and dexterous secrecy; subtle

   a sly trick

4. Light or delicate; slight; thin.

Synonyms

• artful
• cunning
• knowing
• sharp
• crafty

• shrewd
• shifty
• sly as a fox
• slim
• wily

• See also Wikisaurus:wily

Derived terms

Terms derived from sly

• sly as a fox
• on the sly

• slyboots

• slyness

Translations

artfully cunning; secretly mischievous; wily

• Arabic: خَبِيث‏‎ (ḵabīṯ), مَاكِر‏‎ (mākir)

  Egyptian Arabic: خبيث‏‎ m (xabiis), مكار‏‎ m (mkaar)

• Armenian: խորամանկ (hy) (xoramank)
• Basque: azeri (eu)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 狡猾 (zh) (jiǎohuá), 鬼黠 (zh) (guǐxiá), 狡黠 (zh) (jiǎoxiá)

• Czech: prohnaný m
• Dutch: sluw (nl)
• Esperanto: ruza (eo)
• Finnish: ovela (fi)
• French: sournois (fr), malin (fr), rusé (fr), matois (fr)
• German: schlau (de), gerissen (de), listig (de), verschmitzt (de)
• Hungarian: ravasz (hu)
• Irish: bradach

• Italian: furbo (it), sornione (it) m
• Japanese: 狡い (ずるい, zurui), 狡猾 (ja) (こうかつ, kōkatsu)
• Maori: mūrere
• Neapolitan: 'mbruglione
• Norman: seurnouais
• Norwegian: slu, sleip
• Portuguese: esperto (pt), astuto (pt)
• Russian: хи́трый (ru) (xítryj), кова́рный (ru) (kovárnyj) (wily), лука́вый (ru) (lukávyj)
• Serbo-Croatian: prepreden (sh)
• Slovak: ľstivý, prešibaný
• Spanish: astuto (es)
• Swedish: slug (sv)
• Turkish: kurnaz (tr)

dexterous in performing an action, so as to escape notice; nimble

• Finnish: ovela (fi)
• French: espiègle (fr) m, f
• Irish: glic
• Italian: sornione (it), subdolo (it)

• Norwegian: slu
• Russian: ло́вкий (ru) (lóvkij)
• Serbo-Croatian: lukav (sh)
• Slovak: chytrý, prešibaný

done with, and marked by, artful and dexterous secrecy

• Finnish: ovela (fi)
• Norwegian: slu, listig

• Russian: иску́сный (ru) (iskúsnyj)

light or delicate; slight; thin

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Dutch: ^{(please verify)} sluw, ^{(please verify)} listig
• Irish: ^{(please verify)} spleách

• Korean: ^{(please verify)} 교활한 (gyohwalhan)
• Swedish: ^{(please verify)} slug, ^{(please verify)} listig

Further reading

• sly in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• sly in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Adverb

sly

1. Slyly.

Anagrams

• Lys, YLS, YLs, lys, syl-

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Lower Sorbian

Adjective

sly

1. Obsolete spelling of zły (“bad, evil”)

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Swedish

Noun

sly n

1. very young trees, in particular while growing very densely

Declension

Declension of sly

	uncountable		uncountable
Neuter	indefinite	definite
nominative	sly	slyet
genitive	slys	slyets