variants
also slily
as in cunningly
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Recent Examples of slyly
Ripley, however, had slyly made the tag as Morgan hit the move, entered the ring and demolished Morgan with Riptide.
—
Blake Oestriecher, Forbes.com, 25 Jan. 2026
Rustin has slyly given her script a focus on women’s needs and feelings, a welcome departure for a genre that usually is more concerned about the men’s predicaments.
—Matthew J. Palm, The Orlando Sentinel, 18 Jan. 2026
West—a 12-year-old, mind you—has slyly defended her choice multiple times on TikTok and seems to remain completely unbothered by the backlash.
—Elizabeth Gulino, Allure, 14 Jan. 2026
Onstage, all this narrative retconning has a breezy behind-the-scenes cleverness, as if the story were being slyly fleshed out in the margins.
—Justin Chang, New Yorker, 20 Nov. 2025
The mother of Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes slyly wore one of the sweatshirts to the Chiefs-Lions game Sunday in a photo with daughter, Mia, and daughter-in-law Brittany Mahomes.
—Kansas City Star, 17 Oct. 2025
Its blend of casual weirdness and ineffable showmanship — watch Carson slyly turn discomfort into comedy — distills the essence of late night better than any marquee guest or recurring segment.
—Steven Zeitchik, HollywoodReporter, 7 Aug. 2025
Blake Oestriecher, Forbes.com, 25 Jan. 2026
Rustin has slyly given her script a focus on women’s needs and feelings, a welcome departure for a genre that usually is more concerned about the men’s predicaments.
—Matthew J. Palm, The Orlando Sentinel, 18 Jan. 2026
West—a 12-year-old, mind you—has slyly defended her choice multiple times on TikTok and seems to remain completely unbothered by the backlash.
—Elizabeth Gulino, Allure, 14 Jan. 2026
Onstage, all this narrative retconning has a breezy behind-the-scenes cleverness, as if the story were being slyly fleshed out in the margins.
—Justin Chang, New Yorker, 20 Nov. 2025
The mother of Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes slyly wore one of the sweatshirts to the Chiefs-Lions game Sunday in a photo with daughter, Mia, and daughter-in-law Brittany Mahomes.
—Kansas City Star, 17 Oct. 2025
Its blend of casual weirdness and ineffable showmanship — watch Carson slyly turn discomfort into comedy — distills the essence of late night better than any marquee guest or recurring segment.
—Steven Zeitchik, HollywoodReporter, 7 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for slyly
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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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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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
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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 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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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
-
There have been more egregious Hollywood glow-ups than that of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren in the Conjuring movies, but how many of those have also been so insidiously appealing?—
Alison Willmore,
Vulture,
4 Sep. 2025
Adverb
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Miami also bounced back sharply, jumping 82 percent to 40 sales, while London slipped to seventh place with just 35 deals.—
Abby Montanez,
Robb Report,
5 Feb. 2026
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If the states don’t reach a deal, federal officials could sharply cut Arizona’s water starting next year, and at that point, a lawsuit is likely, Buschatzke said.—
Ian James,
Los Angeles Times,
5 Feb. 2026
Adverb
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When medicine can't treat her cancer, a dying youngster (Zelda Adams) reaches out to a forest witch (Toby Poser) who uses dark magic to cheat death, but there's a serious cost involved in this rich and artfully crafted scary movie.—
Brian Truitt,
USA Today,
6 Feb. 2026
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The scenes at the reunion are simply but artfully shot in black and white, including a revealing conversation the men’s wives and partners have about living with them that gently expands the perspectives brought into the film’s portrait.—
Wilson Chapman,
IndieWire,
29 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
Cite this Entry
“Slyly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/slyly. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
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