cagey

adjective

ca·​gey ˈkā-jē 

variants or less commonly cagy

cagier; cagiest

1

: hesitant about committing oneself

officials are cagey about giving out details

2

a

: wary of being trapped or deceived : shrewd

a cagey consumer

b

: marked by cleverness

a cagey reply

cagily

ˈkā-jə-lē 

adverb

caginess noun

or less commonly cageyness

ˈkā-jē-nəs 

Synonyms

• slick
• cunning
• cute
• wily
• shrewd

Examples of cagey in a Sentence

a cagey old politician who is exceptionally skilled at getting federal money for his district

when it came time to sign the contract, he suddenly got cagey about taking on the job

Recent Examples on the Web

For a long stretch of its opening act, All the President’s Men—the canonical paranoid thriller from 1976—isn’t just about the brewing Watergate scandal, or about the battle between a cagey political machine and an enterprising newspaper. —K. Austin Collins, The Atlantic, 16 Sep. 2025

And even in recent interviews given to promote the residency’s resumption, other band members were cagey about exactly what went down, before Neil himself let the cat out of the bag. —Chris Willman, Variety, 14 Sep. 2025

Amazon is cagier with its data than Netflix, and Nielsen’s streaming rankings run on a four-week delay. —Tony Maglio, HollywoodReporter, 29 Apr. 2025

The duo’s fingerprints were all over four great Argentina openings in a cagey game. —Anantaajith Raghuraman, The Athletic, 23 Mar. 2025

Word History

Etymology

origin unknown

First Known Use

1876, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

cagey

adjective

ca·​gey

variants also cagy

ˈkā-jē 

cagier; cagiest

: very careful of not being trapped or deceived

a cagey buyer

cagily

-jə-lē 

adverb

caginess

-jē-nəs

noun