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.
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Food professionals from haute cuisine down to trend-savvy sandwich shops tend to be cagey about where they get their ramps.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 13, 2026
A second US official was cagey when asked about whether an extension was likely to be agreed on Trump's trip.
From Barron's ● May 10, 2026
Based on an actual meeting between the two, it’s a cagey game of cat-and-mouse, with the publisher taking the measure of a nervous, still-inexperienced journalist, looking for reassurance that his reporting will prove out.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2026
Given the stakes, a cagey start would have been excused, but these old rivals had other ideas during a thunderously captivating first half.
From BBC ● Mar. 14, 2026
Ernest Burkhart remained cagey about the role of his brother Bryan, evidently not wanting to implicate him.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
With what's at stake, though, it might be a little cagier than that.
From BBC ● May 8, 2025
Clowes himself is cagier about how to interpret “Monica” — and in particular its startling ending, which Aster described as a “gut punch.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 11, 2023
Mr. Gaetz became cagier when the subject turned to how he intended to use his influence on the burning issues of the day, including the debt ceiling and funding for Ukraine.
From New York Times ● Jan. 29, 2023
The answer here was cagier, and I was asked not to quote it directly.
From Slate ● Aug. 12, 2021
The athletes, less forthright about their body-image issues, were cagier about their usage.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 31, 2020
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 Leighton, Alexander
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.
