| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | sly |
| Synonyms: | arch, artful, astute, bluffing, cagey, calculating, canny, captious, conniving, covert, crafty, crooked, cunning, deceitful, deceptive, delusive, designing, dishonest, dishonorable, dissembling, double-dealing, elusive, foxy*, furtive, guileful, illusory, impish, ingenious, insidious, intriguing, mean, mischievous, plotting, roguish, scheming, secret, secretive, sharp, shifty, shrewd, slick*, smart*, smooth*, sneaky, stealthy, subtle, surreptitious, traitorous, treacherous, tricky, underhand, unscrupulous, wily |
| Main Entry: | devious |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | dishonest, crafty |
| Synonyms: | artful, calculating, crooked, deceitful, double-dealing, duplicitous, errant, erring, evasive, faking one out, fishy, foxy*, fraudulent, guileful, indirect, insidious, insincere, not straightforward, oblique, obliquitous, playing games, playing politics, put on, roundabout, scheming, shady, shifty, shrewd, sly, sneaking, sneaky, surreptitious, treacherous, tricky, underhanded, wily |
| Antonyms: | artless, frank, honest, open, straightforward, trustworthy, truthful |
| Main Entry: | dishonest |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | lying, untruthful |
| Synonyms: | backbiting, bent, bluffing, cheating, corrupt, crafty, crooked, cunning, deceitful, deceiving, deceptive, designing, disreputable, double-crossing, double-dealing, elusive, false, fraudulent, guileful, hoodwinking, mendacious, misleading, perfidious, recreant, shady, shifty, sinister, slippery*, sneaking, sneaky, swindling, traitorous, treacherous, tricky, two-faced, two-timing, unctuous, underhanded, unfair, unprincipled, unscrupulous, untrustworthy, villainous, wily |
| Antonyms: | aboveboard, ethical, fair, frank, honest, moral, open, principled, scrupulous, trustworthy, truthful |
| Main Entry: | fickle |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | vacillating, blowing hot and cold |
| Synonyms: | arbitrary, capricious, changeable, cheating, coquettish, double-crossing, faithless, fitful, flighty, frivolous, inconstant, irresolute, lubricious, mercurial, mutable, quicksilver, sneaking, temperamental, ticklish, two-timing, unfaithful, unpredictable, unstable, unsteady, untrue, variable, volatile, whimsical, yo-yo |
| Antonyms: | aware, cognizant, constant, faithful, reliable, stable, steady |
| Main Entry: | indirect |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | roundabout; unintended |
| Synonyms: | ambiguous, ancillary, circuitous, circular, circumlocutory, collateral, complicated, contingent, crooked, devious, discursive, duplicitous, erratic, eventual, implied, incidental, long, long way home, long-drawn-out, long-winded, meandering, oblique, obscure, out-of-the-way, periphrastic, rambling, secondary, serpentine, sidelong, sinister, sinuous, snaking, sneaking, sneaky, subsidiary, tortuous, twisting, underhand, vagrant, wandering, winding, zigzag |
| Antonyms: | direct, straight, straightforward |
| Main Entry: | insidious |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | sneaky, tricky |
| Synonyms: | Machiavellian, artful, astute, corrupt, crafty, crooked, cunning, dangerous, deceitful, deceptive, deep, designing, dishonest, disingenuous, duplicitous, ensnaring, false, foxy, guileful, intriguing, like a snake in the grass, perfidious, perilous, secret, slick, sly, smooth, snaky, sneaking, stealthy, subtle, surreptitious, treacherous, wily, wormlike |
| Notes: | insidious (Latin insidere 'to lie in wait for,' from sedere 'sit') describes stealthy, treacherous behavior; invidious behavior arouses ill will, animosity, or hostility |
| Antonyms: | fair, honest, open, sincere |
| Main Entry: | obsequious |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | groveling, submissive |
| Synonyms: | abject, beggarly, brownnosing, complacent, compliable, compliant, cringing, crouching, deferential, enslaved, fawning, flattering, ingratiating, kowtowing, menial, obeisant, oily, parasitic, parasitical, prostrate, respectful, servile, slavish, sneaking, sniveling, spineless, stipendiary, subject, submissive, subordinate, subservient, sycophantic, toadying, unctuous |
| Antonyms: | arrogant, assertive, brazen, confident, presumptuous |
| Main Entry: | sly |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | clever, devious |
| Synonyms: | arch, artful, astute, bluffing, cagey, calculating, canny, captious, conniving, covert, crafty, crooked, cunning, deceitful, deceptive, delusive, designing, dishonest, dishonorable, dissembling, double-dealing, elusive, foxy, furtive, guileful, illusory, impish, ingenious, insidious, intriguing, mean, mischievous, plotting, roguish, scheming, secret, sharp, shifty, shrewd, slick, smart, smooth, sneaking, stealthy, subtle, traitorous, treacherous, tricky, underhand, unscrupulous, wily |
| Antonyms: | honest, open, simple, straight, straightforward, unclever |
| Main Entry: | sneaky |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | underhanded, dishonest |
| Synonyms: | base, contemptible, cowardly, deceitful, devious, disingenuous, double-dealing, duplicitous, furtive, guileful, indirect, low, malicious, mean, nasty, recreant, secretive, shifty, slippery, sly, sneaking, snide, stealthy, surreptitious, tricky, underhand, unreliable, unscrupulous, untrustworthy, yellow* |
| Antonyms: | aboveboard, candid, forthright, frank, honest |