shifty
[shif-tee]
- resourceful; fertile in expedients.
- given to or full of evasions; tricky.
- suggesting a deceptive or evasive character: a shifty look.
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Origin of shifty
Synonyms
See more synonyms for shifty on Thesaurus.com2. crafty, foxy, slippery.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for shifty
Contemporary Examples
Through some shifty maneuvering, I cut the line and managed to be one of the first ones in.
Partying With the Golden Globes Stars: Taylor Swift Cuts a Rug, Ben Affleck Holds Court, and MoreMarlow Stern
January 13, 2014
Whether you like or loathe the AMC mystery, you love Holder, the shifty cop played by Joel Kinnaman.
Historical Examples
The shifty, ungenerous spirit of compromise awoke in Raymount.
Weighed and WantingGeorge MacDonald
Eccles faced him unwillingly, with a stolid front but shifty eyes.
The Black BagLouis Joseph Vance
He gave an impression of dry dinginess, like rawhide, and his eyes were mean and shifty.
Louisiana LouWilliam West Winter
He stared at her fixedly, his shifty eyes for once held steady.
Louisiana LouWilliam West Winter
“I am that,” exclaimed the other, with a gleam of cupidity in his shifty eyes.
The Golden WomanRidgwell Cullum
shifty
- given to evasions; artful
- furtive in character or appearance
- full of expedients; resourceful
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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
Word Origin and History for shifty
adj.
1560s, "able to manage for oneself, fertile in expedients," from shift (n.1) in secondary sense of "dodge, trick, artifice" + -y (2). Meaning "habitually using dishonest methods, characterized by trickery" first recorded 1837. In a sense "prone to shifting," of the wind, used from 1884. Related: Shiftily; shiftiness.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper