sly
pronunciation
How to pronounce sly in British English:
UK [slaɪ]
How to pronounce sly in American English:
US [slaɪ]
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- Adjective:
- marked by skill in deception
Word Origin
- sly
- sly: [12] Etymologically, sly means ‘able to hit’. It was borrowed from Old Norse slǣgr ‘clever, cunning’, which went back ultimately to the prehistoric Germanic base *slakh-, *slag-, *slōg- ‘hit’ (source also of English slaughter, slay, etc). The word’s original approbatory connotations of ‘cleverness’ or ‘skill’ survived into the 20th century in northern dialects, but elsewhere they were soon ousted by the notion of ‘underhandedness’. More neutral associations linger on in sleight ‘dexterity’ [13] (as in ‘sleight of hand’), which was acquired from an Old Norse derivative of slǣgr.=> slaughter, slay, sleight
- sly (adj.)
- c. 1200, "skillful, clever, dexterous," from Old Norse sloegr "cunning, crafty, sly," from Proto-Germanic *slogis (cognates: Low German slu "cunning, sly," German schlau), probably from base *slak- "to strike, hit" (see slay (v.)), with an original notion of "able to hit." Compare German verschlagen "cunning, crafty, sly," schlagfertig "quick-witted," literally "strike-ready," from schlagen "to strike." A non-pejorative use of the word lingered in northern English dialect until 20c. On the sly "in secret" is recorded from 1812. Sly-boots "a seeming Silly, but subtil Fellow" is in the 1700 "Dictionary of the Canting Crew."
Antonym
Example
- 1. Don 't tell me that you are the distinguished saviour , not the sly ill-wisher .
- 2. I felt there was something meaningful in her sly grin .
- 3. I order a tea , and the fat bartender smiles his sly smile and asks whether I wanted any rum with it .
- 4. The man thought for a moment , and with a sly grin , stated , " strike me blind in one eye ! "
- 5. Also called " how to be gay , " that course raised a remarkable furor in conservative circles , stemming from familiar charges that the sly academic was angling to seduce seminar-loads of straight men into thehomosexual lifestyle .