By the end of Liebling's dispatch, Mollie has become a mythic figure invulnerable to death, capable of great feats of courage and guile, and able to transform himself into any human type for the purposes of disguise.—Lee Siegel, Harper's, December 2004The going was painfully slow, but Chickenhound consoled himself on the long journey by boosting his own ego. "Maybe a silly bunch of rats could put one over on Sela. Huh, she was old and had lost a lot of her guile. Not like me! They hadn't reckoned with a smart intelligent young fox like I am."—Brian Jacques, Redwall, (1986) 2002Untrained human nature was not frank and innocent; it was full of the twists and defences of an instinctive guile.—Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence, 1920
a shady salesman who usually relies on a combination of quick thinking and guile
a person so full of guile he can't even be trusted to give you the correct time of day
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Opening pages show Toews’ characteristic wit and guile squaring off against extraordinary pain.—Literary Hub
july 1, Literary Hub, 1 July 2025 Getting to the knockout phase will take guile as much as craft, something the Dutch boast in abundance.—Megan Feringa, New York Times, 28 June 2025 This would be somewhat of a raw reach, a player who could get by early with his attacking and defensive guile.—Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 19 June 2025 It’s also shown a bit of cleverness and guile, which, yes, is a very good thing, indeed.—The Editors, National Review, 16 June 2025 See All Example Sentences for guile
Word History
Etymology
Middle English gile, from Anglo-French, probably of Germanic origin; akin to Old English wigle divination — more at witch
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