cagey

[ key-jee ]
See synonyms for cagey on Thesaurus.com
adjective,cag·i·er, cag·i·est.
  1. cautious, wary, or shrewd: a cagey reply to the probing question.

Origin of cagey

1
An Americanism dating back to 1890–95; cage + -y1
  • Also cag·y .

Other words for cagey

Opposites for cagey

Other words from cagey

  • cag·i·ly, adverb
  • cag·i·ness, cag·ey·ness, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use cagey in a sentence

  • He's squintin' at me foxy out of them shifty eyes of his, cagy and suspicious, like we was playin' some kind of a game.

  • But this time he was in wrong; I'd been dumped by him so often that I was cagy.

    Ashton-Kirk, Criminologist | John T. McIntyre
  • Though he rarely heeded its summons—cagy boy that he was—the telephone rang oftenest for Nick.

    Gigolo | Edna Ferber
  • He knows that he's followed, all right, and he's cagy enough to keep in the open and pretend to be aboveboard.

    On Secret Service | William Nelson Taft
  • You'd be surprised at how cagy those officers got after a few of them had been captured.

    Spacehounds of IPC | Edward Elmer Smith

British Dictionary definitions for cagey

cagey

cagy

/ (ˈkeɪdʒɪ) /


adjective-ier or -iest
  1. informal not open or frank; cautious; wary

Origin of cagey

1
C20: of unknown origin

Derived forms of cagey

  • cagily, adverb
  • caginess, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012