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 The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.

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”), 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. Dexterous in performing an action, so as to escape notice; nimble; skillful; cautious; shrewd; knowing; — in a good sense.
3. Done with, and marked by, artful and dexterous secrecy; subtle; as, 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

slyboots

slyness

Translations

artfully cunning; secretly mischievous; wily

• Arabic: خبيث (khabiith), ماكر (maakir)
• Armenian: խորամանկ (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)

• Italian: furbo (it), sornione (it) m
• Japanese: 狡い (ずるい, zurui), 狡猾 (ja) (こうかつ, kōkatsu)
• Jèrriais: seurnouais
• Neapolitan: 'mbruglione
• Norwegian: slu, sleip
• Portuguese: esperto (pt) m
• Russian: хитрый (ru) (xítryj), коварный (ru) (kovárnyj) (wily), лукавый (ru) (lukávyj)
• Serbo-Croatian: prepreden
• Slovak: ľstivý, prešibaný
• Spanish: astuto (es)

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

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

• Russian: ловкий (ru) (lovkij)
• Serbo-Croatian: lukav
• Slovak: chytrý, prešibaný

done with, and marked by, artful and dexterous secrecy

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

• Russian: искусный (ru) (iskusnyj)

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 Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Dutch: sluw, listig
• Irish: spleách
• Korean: 교활한 (gyohwalhan)

• Portuguese: astuto
• Swedish: slug, listig

External links

• 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

• YLS

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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