Synonyms and Antonyms of sly
1
clever at attaining one's ends by indirect and often deceptive means
- the movie pairs a sly, dissembling ex-con with an upstanding, straight-arrow cop
artful, beguiling, cagey (also cagy), crafty, cunning, cute, designing, devious, dodgy [chiefly British], foxy, guileful, scheming, shrewd, slick, subtle, tricky, wily
astute, facile, glib, sharp
crooked, deceitful, deceptive, dishonest, fraudulent, insinuating, knavish, Machiavellian, oblique, serpentine, shady, shifty, slippery, sneaky, treacherous, underhand, underhanded, unscrupulous
backhanded, double-dealing, hypocritical, insincere, left-handed, mealy, mealymouthed, smooth-tongued, two-faced
circuitous, circular, roundabout
clandestine, concealed, covert, furtive, hugger-mugger, secret, stealthy, surreptitious, undercover
calculating, plotting
obvious, open, patent, plain, public, unconcealed
aboveboard, candid, direct, forthright, frank, honest, natural, outspoken, plainspoken, real, simple, sincere, straightforward, unaffected, unpretending, unpretentious, unvarnished
childlike, impressionable, simpleminded, unsophisticated, unworldly
unforced, unstudied
trustful, trusting
2
given to acting in secret and to concealing one's intentions
- why, you sly fellow! I had no idea you were planning my birthday party
- a sly undercover police officer
artful, crafty, cunning, devious, foxy, guileful, slick, wily
close, closemouthed, reticent, secretive
clandestine, covert, dark
deceitful, deceiving, deceptive, devious, duplicitous, trickish, tricky, underhand, underhanded
cheating, crooked, defrauding, dishonest, dissembling, double-dealing, knavish, two-faced
lying, mendacious, untrustworthy, untruthful
insidious, perfidious, serpentine, treacherous
aboveboard, forthright, plainspoken, straightforward
candid, direct, foursquare, frank, open, plain
honest, trustworthy, truthful
3
tending to or exhibiting reckless playfulness
