cagey
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of cagey
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Companies that build bot-detection tools are cagey about revealing exactly what triggers a captcha, worried that explaining the rules would help attackers get around them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
But they were pretty cagey against Nottingham Forest last week in the Premier League.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
It verifies Gloria’s singing talent and proves a perfect match for her showy, cagey persona: the love child of Marlene Dietrich and Sally Bowles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
As I peppered him with questions about the pink car and the Brinks armored truck, he remained cagey while slowly yielding information.
From Slate ● Aug. 14, 2026
Even as he took off his hat and rolled a cigarette, he had the cagey demeanor of a domesticated dog gone feral.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
With what's at stake, though, it might be a little cagier than that.
From BBC ● May 8, 2025
But others, especially those in the heavily polluting energy sector, have been cagier about their intentions or have resisted overhauling operations for the sake of planetary survival.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2021
The answer here was cagier, and I was asked not to quote it directly.
From Slate ● Aug. 12, 2021
Some cagier gamblers might wait until closer to game time to bet the underdogs.
From New York Times ● Sep. 18, 2019
Great Britain 3-4 Japan A match that’s cagier than London Zoo edges towards its conclusion.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 24, 2018
Few can parry like Bacon — and he was at his cagiest about his work, speaking abstractly of the importance of “chance” and “accident.”
From New York Times ● Mar. 23, 2021
Yet here she was, about to match wits with some of the cleverest and cagiest card players in the world.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 1, 2020
Though I had expected Johns to be guarded about his past or his personal life, it was a surprise to find him cagiest about his artistic process.
From New York Times ● Feb. 18, 2019
She has a winsome translator, a force of loyal eunuch fighters and an adviser who happens to be the cagiest person in this entire story.
From New York Times ● Jun. 24, 2016
Tuts, woman, open the yett," said Willie in his cagiest manner, "and I'll tell ye a' aboot it.
From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Volume 21 by Alexander Leighton
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
