wily

Definition

Sly, cunning, full of tricks.

Etymology

From Middle English wily, wiley, wyly. By surface analysis, wil(e) + -y.

Example Sentences

• "Horatio's new girlfriend is a wily coquette, and poor Horatio is too smitten to see it."
• "Of all the medical monsters Peter Hotez could have set out to slay, the Yale University researcher could not have chosen a more wily and obscure villain than the hookworm."

Related Words