tricksy

American

[trik-see] / ˈtrɪk si /

adjective

tricksier, tricksiest

Also given to tricks; mischievous; playful; prankish.
difficult to handle or deal with.
Archaic. tricky; crafty; wily.
Archaic. fashionably trim; spruce; smart.

tricksy British

/ ˈtrɪksɪ /

adjective

playing tricks habitually; mischievous
crafty or difficult to deal with
archaic well-dressed; spruce; smart

"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

Other Word Forms

tricksily adverb
tricksiness noun

Etymology

Origin of tricksy

1545–55; trick + -s ³ + -y ¹; -sy

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.

Psychological coherence takes a back seat to tricksy plotting.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 6, 2022

“Easy Feedback Form” even appeared in the credits of 2021’s hit collectible card game Inscryption — a means for developer Daniel Mullins to fine-tune the tricksy, playfully meta title.

From The Verge • Jun. 29, 2022

She keeps the Polaroid picture of herself and her friends, taken by a tricksy hitchhiker in the 1974 film, on her dashboard visor.

From Salon • Feb. 19, 2022

Besides being a deliciously sardonic tale of reversals and comeuppance, “Ezra Slef” pays deft homage to Nabokov, Borges, Flann O’Brien and numerous other tricksy writers.

From Washington Post • Apr. 6, 2021

‘The tricksy lights. Candles of corpses, yes, yes. Don’t you heed them! Don’t look! Don’t follow them! Where’s the master?’

From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023