sly
Americanadjective
comparative
slyer, slier,superlative
slyest, sliestidioms
adjective
-
crafty; artful
a sly dodge
-
insidious; furtive
a sly manner
-
playfully mischievous; roguish
sly humour
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of sly
First recorded in 1150–1200; Middle English sly, sley , from Old Norse slœgr “sly, cunning” (originally “able to strike, able to slay”); see slay ( def. )
Explanation
When you're sly, you're crafty, cunning, tricky, and wily. Being sly is being deceitful, though not in the worst way. If you're good at lying, you're quite sly: people who are sly are good at pulling one over on other people. Being sly helps you get away with things. If you made a mess in your house but got your parents to blame the dog, that was sly. Being sly means you're not being honest, but this word has kind of a harmless flavor to it. Someone who killed someone and lied about it would not be described as sly. Slyness has to do with smaller, sneakier, more harmless kinds of lying.
Vocabulary lists containing sly
"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
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Scrabble: Words with no Vowels
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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.
In between the live performance, the academy also showed video tributes for Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead and Sly Stone.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 2, 2026
"When you buy a reggae record, there's a 90% chance the drummer is Sly Dunbar," producer Brian Eno told the New Music New York festival in 1979.
From BBC • Jan. 26, 2026
Sly, wry, adorable and deplorable, Guillaume Marbeck is priceless as the endlessly irritating and yet frustratingly charismatic Godard in one of the year’s brightest pictures, a rare standout in a sea of multiplex mediocrity.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 30, 2025
Born Michael Eugene Archer in Virginia, D’Angelo was an artist in the tradition of the soul greats like Marvin Gaye and Al Green, but also Otis Redding, the Isley Brothers and Sly Stone.
From Salon • Oct. 19, 2025
On this late night, not only was my radio working but the station was also hosting a retrospective on the music of Sly and the Family Stone.
From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson
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.
