variants
or skullduggery
as in deception
the use of clever underhanded actions to achieve an end
the company's apparently healthy bottom line was merely an illusion, the result of years of accounting skulduggery
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of skulduggery
There are many reasons beyond cheating and skulduggery that someone might root or modify their Android device.
—
Kevin Purdy, Ars Technica, 30 July 2024
And so the tale of how the Giants established themselves at the Polo Grounds is told, accurately enough, as a piece of complicated capitalist skulduggery in which the team’s desperate owner bought a controlling interest in the Baltimore Orioles and then dragged its stars north.
—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 25 Mar. 2024
Schiff’s skulduggery was unfortunate but totally rational under the current system.
—David Daley, The Mercury News, 14 Mar. 2024
This one went smoothly — no claims of rampant rigging, no significant taint of skulduggery — due in large part to the defeat of deepfakes, democracy’s newest enemy.
—Michael Rogers, Twin Cities, 14 Jan. 2024
See All Example Sentences for skulduggery
Kevin Purdy, Ars Technica, 30 July 2024
And so the tale of how the Giants established themselves at the Polo Grounds is told, accurately enough, as a piece of complicated capitalist skulduggery in which the team’s desperate owner bought a controlling interest in the Baltimore Orioles and then dragged its stars north.
—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 25 Mar. 2024
Schiff’s skulduggery was unfortunate but totally rational under the current system.
—David Daley, The Mercury News, 14 Mar. 2024
This one went smoothly — no claims of rampant rigging, no significant taint of skulduggery — due in large part to the defeat of deepfakes, democracy’s newest enemy.
—Michael Rogers, Twin Cities, 14 Jan. 2024
See All Example Sentences for skulduggery
Recent Examples of Synonyms for skulduggery
Noun
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The deception here is the notion that these four men are playing against one another, cards or dice or some type of game.—
Erik Kain,
Forbes.com,
13 Aug. 2025
-
Clown references imply the fans are in on Swift's schemes, here for the deception and recognize the serious undertones beneath the singer's stage makeup.—
Nicole Fallert,
USA Today,
12 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
Those concerns were laid bare in the discovery process for the defamation case that Dominion Voting Systems took against Fox over false suggestions of fraud and other chicanery aired by guests on the network.—
Niall Stanage,
The Hill,
19 July 2025
-
One is inclined to ask how much chicanery, deceit, deception and outright lying one must absorb before ending one’s allegiance to that party.—
Sun Sentinel Editorial Board,
Sun Sentinel,
2 June 2025
Noun
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That phonetic play alone already signals one of the project’s theoretical subterfuges: that of exploring the most advanced conditions of the subject’s annihilation as a foundational precondition for artistic authority.—
Benjamin H. D. Buchloh,
Artforum,
1 June 2025
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An especially Jewish theme in the seventeenth century was not only the necessity but the dignity of subterfuge; to have lived in the shadows of another people’s empire had a nobility of its own, captured in this exquisite and ambivalent image.—
Adam Gopnik,
New Yorker,
19 July 2025
Noun
-
Michigan had dropped four of its last six games, but mustered enough trickery and belief to keep pace that day and finally, enough gall to try a 2-point conversion that could clinch the game.—
Andrew Callahan,
Boston Herald,
7 Aug. 2025
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In the span of a few quarters, impersonation has graduated from trickery to full-spectrum mimicry.—
Alexander Puutio,
Forbes.com,
31 July 2025
Noun
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And Newsom, the California Governor and not-so-subtle contender for the Democratic nomination for President next turn, has threatened through allies to respond in kind to Texas’ gamesmanship.—
Philip Elliott,
Time,
4 Aug. 2025
-
The decision to defund the lottery, which for the much of this year has been a magnet for criticism in the Legislature on multiple fronts, was seen as legislative gamesmanship when the House in the wee hours of Friday morning passed its version of the state budget.—
John C. Moritz,
Austin American Statesman,
30 July 2025
Noun
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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
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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
Noun
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Between April 1 and 7, the fair gathered 60 brands at the Palexpo exhibition center that broke new records, showcased world premieres and offered an ever-growing array of technical and artistic legerdemain in their latest high-end timepieces.—
Lily Templeton,
Footwear News,
17 Apr. 2025
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Congressional legerdemain can’t wave away that reality.—
Howard Gleckman,
Forbes,
4 Dec. 2024
Cite this Entry
“Skulduggery.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/skulduggery. Accessed 22 Aug. 2025.
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