as in furtively
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Recent Examples of Synonyms for shiftily
Adverb
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Unlike Monday's burial for Princess Irene, which follows a Saturday prayer service in Madrid and a funeral Monday at Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens, the Tatoi interment for Sofia's mother, Queen Federica of Greece, was not official, and took place almost furtively.—
Diego Parrado,
Vanity Fair,
18 Jan. 2026 -
This has become the central theme of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City—probably the most chaotic show in its franchise—whose characters are always trying to root out which of their frenemies is furtively digging up dirt and spreading rumors about their legal or financial woes.—
Judy Berman,
Time,
5 Nov. 2025
Adverb
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The actor Marisa Abela plays her in a binary state of panic and swagger by sobbing like a dejected child or slyly grinning like one who’s about to wolf down an ice-cream cake.—
Spencer Kornhaber,
The Atlantic,
2 Mar. 2026
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His halftime show exemplified this fearless approach; to layer genuine education upon mass spectacle, and to slyly rail against injustice with humor and joy.—
Andrew R. Chow,
Time,
9 Feb. 2026
Adverb
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Empty containers in the wrong locations, ships gridlocked outside of ports and other logistical problems raised prices sharply for a wide variety of goods.—
Vanessa Yurkevich,
CNN Money,
6 Mar. 2026
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Noem made the statement during a four-hour hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where lawmakers sharply criticized the department’s aggressive immigration enforcement.—
Mathew Miranda
Updated March 4,
Sacbee.com,
5 Mar. 2026
Adverb
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The show, which followed a crooked New Mexican lawyer, played by Bob Odenkirk, was an archly funny drama, shot partly in gritty black-and-white.—
Rachel Syme,
New Yorker,
29 Sep. 2025
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Much as Wes Anderson and Yorgos Lanthimos have plumbed Dafoe’s deliciously wicked sense of humor in pieces that straddle the line between the real and the archly stylized, Solnicki understands that a strong Dafoe performance must always teeter between the two.—
Manuel Betancourt,
Variety,
28 Sep. 2025
Adverb
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Some players struggled against the size of bigger and stronger players, while others craftily created space with deft footwork and manipulation.—
Devin Robertson,
MSNBC Newsweek,
27 Aug. 2025
Adverb
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The threats to our waters are insidiously obscured from sight.—
Theodore J. Karamanski,
Chicago Tribune,
6 Feb. 2026
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The experiment is that AI is being made available nationally and globally, which is either overtly or insidiously acting to provide mental health guidance of one kind or another.—
Lance Eliot,
Forbes.com,
30 Jan. 2026
Adverb
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The Chinese delayed their retaliation for a while and then, very cunningly, took disproportionate revenge on Canada, recognizing Canada as the weaker link, who got less from the tariffs and were more exposed.—
David Frum,
The Atlantic,
4 Feb. 2026
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Instead of kings and queens cunningly maneuvering their armies against their enemies, there’s only an ox of a man and a bald little boy, neither of whom exhibits a clearly superior intellect.—
Ben Travers,
IndieWire,
13 Jan. 2026
Adverb
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Out with the clunky old 20th-century contractors making fighter jets, say Democrats and Republicans alike — and in with the venture-backed, slickly marketed, innovative new companies selling the silent drones, surveillance software, and cheap missiles of 21st-century combat.—
Ben Smith,
semafor.com,
3 Nov. 2025
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Earlier this year, Tiffany Stratton, not very slickly, mentioned Charlotte Flair's three divorces during a promo ahead of WrestleMania 41.—
Ryan Morik,
FOXNews.com,
5 Aug. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Shiftily.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shiftily. Accessed 10 Mar. 2026.
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