Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Working or spreading harmfully in a subtle or stealthy manner: insidious rumors; an insidious disease.
- adj. Intended to entrap; treacherous: insidious misinformation.
- adj. Beguiling but harmful; alluring: insidious pleasures.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Lying in wait; hence, deceitful; sly; treacherous.
- Designed or adapted to entrap; deceptive; insnaring: as, insidious arts.
Wiktionary
- adj. Producing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner.
- adj. Treacherous.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Lying in wait; watching an opportunity to insnare or entrap; deceitful; sly; treacherous; -- said of persons.
- adj. Intended to entrap; characterized by treachery and deceit.
- adj. Acting or proceeding unobserved or in a seemingly harmless manner, but slowly or eventually doing great damage.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. beguiling but harmful
- adj. intended to entrap
- adj. working or spreading in a hidden and usually injurious way
Etymologies
- From Latin īnsidiōsus, from īnsidiae, ambush, from īnsidēre, to sit upon, lie in wait for : in-, in, on; see in-2 + sedēre, to sit; see sed- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“I mean, you've got Darth Sidious (as in "insidious," I assume) and then the even-more-obviously named Darths Maul and Tyrannus.”
“The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Ninth Circuit Denies Rehearing in Al-Kidd v. Ashcroft
“But I fear the most insidious is because people think that changing their lightbulbs and sorting their recyclables counts as “doing your bit”.”
“In my opinion, one of the more insidious is the hijacked account scam.”
“Far more insidious is Lieberman, with his coprophagic grin and his profession of good will.”
“What makes Huffington Post more insidious is the way they can buy of dissent readily by giving an organization their own blog.”
On Gaza: Huffington Post Takes Cues From Fox News « Antiwar.com Blog
“The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.”
“The latest strategy is now seen dropping unsupported accusations across the media spectrum to the effect that the intelligence agency's assignment of Ambassador Joseph Wilson to look into the now-discredited Iraq/Niger/uranium claims were all part of a long-term insidious scheme to try and discredit the Bush Administration.”
“Less obvious, but more insidious, is the prejudice against skin color: dark, not light, is the dominant complexion.”
“insidious movie violence" Los Angeles - One of the most violent movie stars of all time has come out against what he calls insidious movie violence.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘insidious’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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movement (slow)
words describing slow action or movement
( randomness, descriptive )creep, crawl, plod, slouch, idle, lumber, tiptoe, bend, amble, mosey, saunter, loiter and 117 more...
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#faveword
Words chosen as favorites for the Twitter hashtag #faveword.
autumnal, grotto, chiaroscuro, sfumato, homunculus, zing, zest, effervescent, bewitch, avuncular, susurrus, Styrofoam and 205 more...
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rolls off the tongue
Words you love saying because they feel and sound so good!
(Not to be conflated with words you love saying because they are onomatopoeic, I have another list for that)gubernatorial, predeliction, quibbling, propensity, proclivity, insidious, nebulous, garble, crabapple, piddling, prattle, wheedling and 11 more...
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macabre
words associated with the macabre & horror.
ghastly, grisly, culeus, silly, gruesome, horrid, morbid, angelic, shocking, hideous, ghoulish, frightful and 85 more...
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Words that Julio has taught me
panegyric, encomium, navigable, gerrymander, carpetbagging, insidious, ribald, vilify, epithalamion, cogent, deprecate, apocryphal
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GREs
supplicate, insidious, hermeneutic, salubrious, perfidious, opprobrium, obviate, vitiate
jwjarvis Our research has shown that multitasking can have an insidious effect on learning. Jun 9, 2010
Michelle Scott-Wilson Men are so insidious!! Women, can I get an Amen!! Mar 13, 2010