What does sly mean?

Definitions for sly
slaɪsly

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word sly.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. crafty, cunning, dodgy, foxy, guileful, knavish, slick, sly, tricksy, tricky, wilyadjective

    marked by skill in deception

    "cunning men often pass for wise"; "deep political machinations"; "a foxy scheme"; "a slick evasive answer"; "sly as a fox"; "tricky Dick"; "a wily old attorney"

Wiktionary

  1. slyadverb

    Slyly.

  2. slyadjective

    Artfully cunning; secretly mischievous; wily.

  3. slyadjective

    Dexterous in performing an action, so as to escape notice; nimble; skillful; cautious; shrewd; knowing; in a good sense.

  4. slyadjective

    Done with, and marked by, artful and dexterous secrecy; subtle; as, a sly trick.

  5. slyadjective

    Light or delicate; slight; thin.

  6. Etymology: From sly, sley, from slǽgr, slœgr, from slōgiz, from slak-. Cognate with slægur, slu, schlau. Related to sleight, slay.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. SLYadjective

    Meanly artful; secretly insidious; cunning.

    Etymology: slið , Saxon, slippery and metaphorically deceitful; slægur, Islandick.

    For my sly wyles and subtile craftiness,
    The title of the kingdom I possess. Hubberd’s Tale.

    And for I doubt the Greekish monarch sly,
    Will use with him some of his wonted craft. Edward Fairfax.

    His proud step he scornful turn’d,
    And with sly circumspection. John Milton, Paradise Lost.

    Envy is a cursed plant: some fibres of it are rooted almost in every man’s nature, and it works in a sly and imperceptible manner. Isaac Watts.

    It is odious in a man to look sly and leering at a woman. Clarissa.

Wikipedia

  1. Sly

    Sly is a single by British trip hop collective Massive Attack, released as a first single from their second album Protection on 17 October 1994. It reached number 24 in the United Kingdom, becoming the band's fourth top 40 single there.

ChatGPT

  1. sly

    Sly refers to someone or something that is cunning, crafty, or deceitful. A sly person is skilled at deceiving people, often in a secretive or understated way. This term can also refer to an action or behavior that is clever or sneaky in a deceptive or manipulative way.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Slyverb

    dexterous in performing an action, so as to escape notice; nimble; skillful; cautious; shrewd; knowing; -- in a good sense

  2. Slyverb

    artfully cunning; secretly mischievous; wily

  3. Slyverb

    done with, and marked by, artful and dexterous secrecy; subtle; as, a sly trick

  4. Slyverb

    light or delicate; slight; thin

  5. Slyadverb

    slyly

Wikidata

  1. Sly

    Sly, ovvero La leggenda del dormiente risvegliato is an opera in three acts by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, based on the Prologue to William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Unlike most of Wolf-Ferrari's other operas, this is a tragedy.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Sly

    slī, adj. dexterous in doing anything so as to be unobserved: cunning: wily: secret: done with artful dexterity: illicit.—n. Sly′boots, a sly or cunning person or animal.—advs. Sly′ly, Slī′ly.—ns. Sly′ness, Slī′ness.—On the sly, slyly, secretly. [Prob. from Ice. slæg-r; cf. Ger. schlau.]

Suggested Resources

  1. sly

    Song lyrics by sly -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by sly on the Lyrics.com website.

  2. SLY

    What does SLY stand for? -- Explore the various meanings for the SLY acronym on the Abbreviations.com website.

Surnames Frequency by Census Records

  1. SLY

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Sly is ranked #10050 in terms of the most common surnames in America.

    The Sly surname appeared 3,205 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 would have the surname Sly.

    79.8% or 2,560 total occurrences were White.
    12% or 386 total occurrences were Black.
    3.3% or 107 total occurrences were Asian.
    2.2% or 72 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
    1.6% or 54 total occurrences were of two or more races.
    0.8% or 26 total occurrences were American Indian or Alaskan Native.

How to pronounce sly?

How to say sly in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of sly in Chaldean Numerology is: 7

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of sly in Pythagorean Numerology is: 2

Examples of sly in a Sentence

  1. Lisa Fields:

    A few of us have been able to see and speak with Connor on FaceTime and I am relieved to hear his voice, witness him move around and see that his sense of humor and strength are still intact, his sly smile says more than any scan, yet those are looking good, too. We are all overjoyed with the news that he is booked on a flight home.

  2. Dave Pomeroy:

    He expanded the pedal part of the steel. The mechanical evolution of the instrument that led to a new style of playing that was much more expressive and unpredictable, he had this sly, wicked grin that was so great, and if you played something he liked he would look at you and give you that little grin that was the nicest seal of approval ever.

  3. Karen Gibson:

    I have had people screaming at me from the car window, i do get stopped every time I go down the road - photos being taken - sometimes they're trying to pap you (take paparazzi photos) on the sly when they think you're not looking. It's beautiful!

  4. Dan Fogelman:

    Fogelman also revealed Sylvester Stallone will make an appearance as a co-star in the movie Kevin is working on. We needed his big co-star and Sly Stallone is coming to do a huge part on the show as Kevin's co-star and father figure in the film he's shooting.

  5. Lati Grobman:

    I did go to the [' Rambo' ] set. I spent a couple weeks there and just being around Sly, you absorb so much because he'll go off and write a scene and come back and shoot it. He's brilliant, he'll write it right there. It's amazing to see that happen. I've seen it a thousand times with him, he'll have an idea to move the cameras around, to completely change the lighting, which he also did. So to just to watch him, do his thing, his art, is quite fascinating.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

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Translations for sly

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"sly." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/sly>.

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