shiftily

Definition of shiftilynext
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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for shiftily
Adverb
  • 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
  • At first, the shot looks like a candid, slyly captured moment of a performer in repose.
    Rachel Syme, New Yorker, 4 May 2026
  • The country star was slyly announced with the release of the weekend two schedule.
    Steven J. Horowitz, Variety, 15 Apr. 2026
Adverb
  • The verdict capped an 11-day trial where Derulo and Spatola offered sharply different accounts of how the song was created.
    Nancy Dillon, Rolling Stone, 7 May 2026
  • The closure of the Strait of Hormuz unleashed the biggest oil supply shock in history, sending energy prices sharply higher.
    Eleni Giokos, CNN Money, 7 May 2026
Adverb
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Often nearly invisible to the naked eye, microplastics have insidiously found their way into people’s lungs, arterial plaques and brains through food, air and water, researchers have found.
    Kate Nishimura, Footwear News, 7 Apr. 2026
  • His dramas set domestic conflicts against the backdrop of societal systems that insidiously warp the playing field for their characters.
    Theater Critic, Los Angeles Times, 1 Apr. 2026
Adverb
  • But cunningly, in the years since 1945—and responsibly and rightly, too—the United States put together a system where most of the other strong countries were also friends.
    David Frum, The Atlantic, 8 Apr. 2026
  • 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
  • Reaching the island is all part of the fun too, requiring you to hop aboard a vintage, slickly varnished wooden boat at Balmaha and schedule a pick-up time for the way back.
    Rosie Conroy, Condé Nast Traveler, 31 Mar. 2026
  • 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
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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“Shiftily.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shiftily. Accessed 10 May. 2026.

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