Wily

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Wily \Wil"y\, a. [Compar. {Wilier}; superl. {Wiliest}.] [From
     {Wile}.]
     Full of wiles, tricks, or stratagems; using craft or
     stratagem to accomplish a purpose; mischievously artful;
     subtle. "Wily and wise." --Chaucer. "The wily snake."
     --Milton.


     [1913 Webster]
  
           This false, wily, doubling disposition of mind.
                                                    --South.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     Syn: Cunning; artful; sly; crafty. See {Cunning}.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  wily
       adj : 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 Dik";
             "a wily old attorney" [syn: {crafty}, {cunning}, {dodgy},
              {foxy}, {guileful}, {knavish}, {slick}, {sly}, {tricksy},
              {tricky}]
       [also: {wiliest}, {wilier}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  69 Moby Thesaurus words for "wily":
     Byzantine, Machiavellian, Machiavellic, acute, arch, artful,
     astute, cagey, calculating, canny, chiseling, clever, collusive,
     covinous, crafty, cunning, cute, deceitful, deep, deep-laid,
     designing, devious, diplomatic, false, falsehearted, feline,
     finagling, foxy, fraudulent, furtive, guileful, indirect,
     ingenious, insidious, inventive, knowing, pawky, politic, ready,
     resourceful, sagacious, scheming, serpentine, sharp, shifty,
     shrewd, slick, slippery, sly, smooth, snaky, sneaky, sophistical,
     stealthy, strategic, subtile, subtle, supple, surreptitious,
     tactical, treacherous, trickish, tricksy, tricky, two-faced,
     underhand, underhanded, vulpine, wary