Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Full of wiles; cunning.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Full of wiles; subtle; cunning; crafty; sly.
- Synonyms Cunning, Artful, Sly, etc. (see cunning), designing, deceitful, foxy, diplomatic, delusive, insidious.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Full of wiles, tricks, or stratagems; using craft or stratagem to accomplish a purpose; mischievously artful; subtle.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. marked by skill in deception
Etymologies
- From wile ("ruse, trick") + -y (Wiktionary)
Examples
“The president is known as a wily politician with a long history of outsmarting political opponents.”
“On the field, Sócrates was known as a wily strategist who could elegantly employ his signature move, a back-heel pass.”
“Perhaps it was his looks - it seemed impossible for any profile of him not to describe him as "wily" - but he projected a sense of profound wisdom, and he was a skilled enough magic man to coax six goals out of Milan Baros in Euro 2004.”
“I think he is the most stunning example of this because it's one thing to look at Jesse Helms being called a wily pandering bigot while Teddy Kennedy is described as a man of principal.”
“Mr. Musharraf is known as a wily fox here in India, and his speech shows exactly why that is.”
“Mark, aristocratic-looking belying a poverty-stricken upbringing and handsome, but known as wily and aloof in his circle, played an expert cat-and-mouse game, not only with Judy—his girlfriend and my patient—but also with his wife.”
“It was one-way traffic as Judah, known as a wily and tricky operator, continued to be outboxed and he was now bleeding from the nose.”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
“Oh rocky," the animal control officer called the wily raccoon.”
“Public Safety Director Stephen Poloni tells The Detroit News coyotes are "called wily for a reason" and says "sharpshooters may be a last resort.”
“While both trends could certainly be leveraged for "wily" marketing purposes, the two should actually be taken quite seriously by brands looking for a bigger bang for their budget in these slow economic times.”
Andrea Learned: Sustainable Business Serves The Women's Market, Naturally
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘wily’.
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 more...
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Them's Fighting Words
annihilate, clandestine, conflagration, enmity, feral, furtive, impede, intrepid, pacify, pugnacious, ruse, stratagem and 5 more...
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Filter 1
Hard words level 1
besotted, altricial, consecrate, consternate, desuetude, detractor, dissolute, divisive, emaciated, enamored, ensconce, garishly and 76 more...
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GRE
pejorative, austere, unconscionable, lissome, edify, winsome, axiom, malinger, abjure, deleterious, contumacious, peregrinate and 152 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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What Do You Mean ?
U Gotta Know These.......
falter, ruddy, flounder, pallid, fumble, founder, labile, titular, tacit, pragmatic, fatalism, jaded and 112 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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Life is just a four-letter word
Everyone's got their favorites. Here are some of mine.
snit, hobo, minx, kiln, loll, pelf, yegg, ugly, bumf, brio, biro, haha and 92 more...
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Vocab
Words that I come across, and go blank, or want to clarify.
nefarious, edifice, malevolent, ostensible, folderol, bauble, livid, amnesty, calculus, saddlery, maisonette, cuisse and 423 more...
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newGRE
mostly from magoosh
imbue, verge on, nonchalant, deliberate, timorous, futile, provisional, dissect, checked, tinged, alluring, visionary and 1046 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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My GRE
concomitant, mendacity, corollary, mandate, ascertain, exacerbate, substantiate, perennial, exemplify, hegemony, acrimonious, repertoire and 653 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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List for Test Day
heresy, reversion, predilection, pedagogy, disparate, virtuous, refurbish, efficaciously, provenance, heckler, amorphous, epitome and 236 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for wily.
sweetzingiber clever; deceptive Jul 31, 2009