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tricksy

[trik-see]
adjective, trick·si·er, trick·si·est.
  1. Also tricksome. given to tricks; mischievous; playful; prankish.
  2. difficult to handle or deal with.
  3. Archaic. tricky; crafty; wily.
  4. Archaic. fashionably trim; spruce; smart.
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Origin of tricksy

1545–55; trick + -s3 + -y1; cf. -sy
Related formstrick·si·ly, adverbtrick·si·ness, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for tricksy

Historical Examples

  • The king is only, or he appears, tricksy because you compel him to wind and counterplot.

    Vittoria, Complete

    George Meredith

  • Still the beaver fair was enlivened by music and tricksy gambols.

    The Story of Tonty

    Mary Hartwell Catherwood

  • I've heard tell of them all my life, I know, and of their tricksy ways.

    Fairies Afield

    Mary Louisa Molesworth

  • But for him Ayala would run about as though she were a tricksy Ariel.

    Ayala's Angel

    Anthony Trollope

  • Art is a tricksy quantity and like quicksilver is ever mobile.

British Dictionary definitions for tricksy

tricksy

adjective -sier or -siest
  1. playing tricks habitually; mischievous
  2. crafty or difficult to deal with
  3. archaic well-dressed; spruce; smart
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Derived Formstricksiness, noun
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