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wily

adjective

Synonyms and Antonyms of wily

clever at attaining one's ends by indirect and often deceptive means

  • a wily judge of character, she takes advantage of car buyersʼ insecurities to sell them a bigger machine than they really need
Synonyms of wily

artful, beguiling, cagey (also cagy), crafty, cunning, cute, designing, devious, dodgy [chiefly British], foxy, guileful, scheming, shrewd, slick, sly, subtle, tricky
Words Related to wily

astute, facile, glib, sharp

crooked, deceitful, deceptive, dishonest, fraudulent, insinuating, knavish, Machiavellian, oblique, serpentine, shady, shifty, slippery, sneaky, treacherous, underhand, underhanded, unscrupulous

backhanded, double-dealing, hypocritical, insincere, left-handed, mealy, mealymouthed, smooth-tongued, two-faced

circuitous, circular, roundabout

clandestine, concealed, covert, furtive, hugger-mugger, secret, stealthy, surreptitious, undercover

calculating, plotting
Near Antonyms of wily

obvious, open, patent, plain, public, unconcealed

aboveboard, candid, direct, forthright, frank, honest, natural, outspoken, plainspoken, real, simple, sincere, straightforward, unaffected, unpretending, unpretentious, unvarnished

childlike, impressionable, simpleminded, unsophisticated, unworldly

unforced, unstudied

trustful, trusting
Antonyms of wily

artless, guileless, ingenuous, innocent, undesigning

Synonym Discussion of wily

sly, cunning, crafty, wily, tricky, foxy, artful, slick mean attaining or seeking to attain one's ends by guileful or devious means. sly implies furtiveness, lack of candor, and skill in concealing one's aims and methods.
    • a sly corporate raider
cunning suggests the inventive use of sometimes limited intelligence in overreaching or circumventing.
    • the cunning fox avoided the trap
crafty implies cleverness and subtlety of method.
    • a crafty lefthander
wily implies skill and deception in maneuvering.
    • the wily fugitive escaped the posse
tricky is more likely to suggest shiftiness and unreliability than skill in deception and maneuvering.
    • a tricky political operative
foxy implies a shrewd and wary craftiness usually involving devious dealing.
    • a foxy publicity man planting stories
artful implies indirectness in dealing and often connotes sophistication or cleverness.
    • elicited the information by artful questioning
slick emphasizes smoothness and guile.
    • slick operators selling time-sharing

Learn More about wily

  1. See words that rhyme with wily Dictionary: Definition of wily Spanish Central: Translation of wily Nglish: Translation of wily for Spanish speakers

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