devious
Americanadjective
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departing from the most direct way; circuitous; indirect.
a devious course.
- Synonyms:
- involved, tortuous, roundabout
-
without definite course; vagrant.
a devious current.
-
departing from the proper or accepted way; roundabout.
a devious procedure.
-
not straightforward; shifty or crooked.
a devious scheme to acquire wealth.
adjective
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not sincere or candid; deceitful; underhand
-
(of a route or course of action) rambling; indirect; roundabout
-
going astray from a proper or accepted way; erring
Other Word Forms
- deviously adverb
- deviousness noun
- nondevious adjective
- nondeviously adverb
- nondeviousness noun
- undevious adjective
- undeviously adverb
- undeviousness noun
Etymology
Origin of devious
First recorded in 1590–1600; from Latin dēvius “out-of-the-way, erratic,” from dē- de- + -vius (adjective derivative of via “way”)
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.
Now, as third baseman Max Muncy said with a devious grin from atop a makeshift stage in the Dodger Stadium outfield, “it’s starting to get a little bit comfortable up here. Let’s keep it going.”
From Los Angeles Times
Meanwhile the narrator’s financially devious husband appears as a vulture with “the brooding eye, the blood-tipped beak, the flabby folds of flesh” of a bird of prey.
The first page calls the team owners “narcissistic,” “devious” and “megalomaniacal capitalists,” and Mr. Smith has barely warmed up.
Using the same paint to render George and Bertha, however, yields a devious kind of portrait.
From Salon
I prefer to think of it as a solid cargo ship delivering inciting devices, as in the lethal xenomorphs engineered by Michael Fassbender’s devious android David 8.
From Salon
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.
