Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Sly

Sly (slī), a. [Compar. Slier or Slyer; superl. Sliest or Slyest.] [OE. sli, slegh, sleih, Icel slægr, for slœgr; akin to Sw. slug, Dan. slu, LG. slou, G. schlau; probably to E. slay, v.t.; cf. G. verschlagen sly. See Slay, v. t., and cf. Sleight.] 1. Dexterous in performing an action, so as to escape notice; nimble; skillful; cautious; shrewd; knowing; — in a good sense.

Be ye sly as serpents, and simple as doves. Wyclif (Matt. x. 16).

Whom graver age And long experience hath made wise and sly. Fairfax.

2. Artfully cunning; secretly mischievous; wily.

For my sly wiles and subtle craftiness, The litle of the kingdom I possess. Spenser.

3. Done with, and marked by, artful and dexterous secrecy; subtle; as, a sly trick.

Envy works in a sly and imperceptible manner. I. Watts.

4. Light or delicate; slight; thin. [Obs.]

By the sly, or On the sly, in a sly or secret manner. [Colloq.] "Gazed on Hetty's charms by the sly." G. Eliot. — Sly goose (Zoöl.), the common sheldrake; — so named from its craftiness.

Syn. — Cunning; crafty; subtile; wily. See Cunning.

Sly, adv. Slyly. [Obs. or Poetic] Spenser.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.